Christmas Card Ideas with My Mind's Eye
Good morning Magpies!
Welcome to the weekend!
I know that for many of you the sight of the C******** word right now is sure to put you on edge, but mid-October is usually the time of year when I feel I really need to ramp up my Christmas card production so that I have enough cards set aside before December arrives.
I recently spent some time making a collection of cards featuring My Mind’s Eye’s two new Christmas collections: Sugar Plum and Comfort and Joy.
Here are the items from the store that I picked out for 2016 Christmas card production- Phase 1:
The stand-out feature of these two collections is definitely the glitter finish to many of the papers and embellishments – Sugar Plum uses a vintage gold tone while Comfort and Joy has white glitter that has an iridescent effect to it. As always the B-sides for these papers are definitely worth checking out, especially in the Comfort and Joy collection!
So let’s start with my Sugar Plum card projects:
I’m so glad to see that these domed ornaments and snow globes are sticking around in 2016 – I absolutely love them in real life, I am a total sucker for domed decorations so it’s just lovely to be able to feature them on my cards too. 🙂
I used the 12×12 sheets of the Glisten paper as the main background and the Sparkle paper for the wintry scene in the background. The frame was cut from the 6×6 pad and the lovely glittered die-cut is from the ephemera pack, and of course I used the matching enamel dots to finish it off.The heart at the top of the frame is also from the ephemera pack and I just scored it down the middle to make it stand out better.
I’m a big fan of the retro/modern mix in this collection. I wanted to use the lovely glittered snowflake paper with the more modern looking designs in the 6×6 pad.
And of course, you can’t go wrong with a bit of mini pompom trim to bring everything together, oh and a couple of candy canes from the ephemera pack too!
For this card I cut a large circle from the Sparkle paper I used earlier to create another winter scene card. It looks lovely against the red contrast of the triangular paper from the 6×6 pad.
All the other additions are from the ephemera pack and the matching enamel dots.
While I had the ephemera scattered on my desk I really wanted to showcase some of the larger items you get in it – namely a huge “Joy” tag that I used paired up with more tags and die-cuts.
They really stand out against the Joy glittered paper.
And more glitter and die-cuts were used on this card. I added a bit more snowy glitter to the houses here.
And stamped a greeting on the die-cut banner. Plus the strip of spotty paper looked more festive when given the tinsel treatment. 🙂
Finally – the Sugar Plum collection can also be used for some lovely clean and simple cards. All you need is a bold background like the B-side of the Cheer paper (one of my favourite papers in this collection!) and a die-cut or sticker as your main focal point.
I love how the glittered tree fits right inside my stamped greeting, and I couldn’t resist using one of the large enamel stars to decorate the top of the tree.
If pink and pastel tones aren’t your colours for winter, don’t worry.
My Mind’s Eye’s other Christmas collection, Comfort and Joy, takes you right to the cosy aspects of winter. It’s filled with lots of plaid, woodsy, and country designs. I loved the pop of black that contrasts with many of the designs, and of course there is a great snowflake background or two in the form of the B-side of Snowflake Kisses and the B-side of Jingle All the Way. These two papers are must-have designs, plus I absolutely love the B-side plaid design of Sweater Weather.
This card features all three of those B-sides:
Surely it would be against all the rules to not make a card featuring jingle bells, right? I just love the marquee light star from the Chipboard sheet – it goes perfectly with these papers and totally pops against the snowflakes. I just had to use gold bells and twine to bring everything together, plus a couple of the gold glitter enamel dots from the Sugar Plum line.
I cannot stress enough how much I love the woodgrain snow B-side of Jingle All the Way – it is the perfect contrast to so many design elements but stands out best against black backgrounds like the B-side of the Caramel Macchiato paper.
For my greeting I used this fantastic die-cut from the journaling card pack. All that I needed to add were some Frosted Lace Stickles to the dots of white in the background.
As soon as I saw this sledge in the chipboard set I knew who’d be getting it on their Christmas card this year. I definitely had to go the whole hog with the winter jumper inspiration too!
I just love how adding a bit of Frosted Lace Stickles to your accents and backgrounds really brings that frosty snowy look to life. The only trick is making sure you leave your project in a safe place to dry and to not keep prodding it to check whether it has dried! Because 9 times out of 10, it hasn’t!
Finally, the prospect of using more snow globe accents was just too much to resist!
I used the Evergreen & Holly glittered paper as the background for this 5×7 card and once again the B-side papers from my earlier cards were perfect for showcasing the chipboard accents – including the sentiment.
A sprig of holly and a couple of festive buttons bring everything together.
I suppose it is quite fitting that for my final blog post for the Hey Little Magpie creative team it’s clear to see that I’m still as big a fan of the humble B-side as I was back in my first post in August 2014. Some things will never change!
I’ve had a fantastic time on the team and have really enjoyed sharing my projects with you all month in and month out.
It’s been a great ride and I look forward to seeing you all in the Hey Little Magpie Chat and Inspiration group over on Facebook.
Happy crafting to you all!