Christmas cards with a gold embossed tree and a layered snow man

 For my first card, I trimmed this gold embossed tree image which I found in my stash.  I adhered it to my dark yellow handmade paper background using two dark brown brads to which I had tied short lengths of gold cording.  It still needed a bit of something so I added wavy lines of faux stitching with a gold marker.  That was better.  I adhered this large element to dark brown card to finish it off.  My second card features a white piece of card with a snowman hole in it.  These have been around for a while and I believe I borrowed the Sizzix die from a friend.  The snowmans have been used and I was left with the openings in a quarter sheet of white cardstock.  I have used several of these over the years but was never able to make them really look like snowmen.  So I found the die on line to see what it originally looked like and decided to replicate it.   I traced the outline with a pencil on vellum and the hand drew the pieces in.  I started with the hat by cutting a shallow curve on a piece of black cardstock.  I added a green ribbon where it needed to be on the back of the opening and adhered the black cardstock which instantly created the hat.  Next, I traced the vellum image of the scarf over a scrap of red cardstock and then cut it out on the embossed line.  Secured that behind the opening.  Next, I cut little bumps in the edge of two scraps of brown cardstock and adhered them on each side for the arms in the same way.  That worked out really well.  I added white handmade paper behind that and suddenly I had a snowman!!!!  I added two tiny black brads for the eyes and three little black circle punchies below the scarf to finish him off.  He still needed a bit of a nose so I simply added a little dot of pink with watercolour which worked well.  A bit tedious but a really nice snowman card!!  I have quite a few more of these cut outs so will consider adding them to my next year's cardmaking for next Christmas.  I always like to take a bit more time in the early months of the year to make my Christmas cards so they will work in there very nicely.  Therese