Americana Christmas Card

Good morning!  I haven't posted anything for a few days because I've been busy making all of my swap cards for Dawn's Glitter Queen Swap.  The swap is only for Dawn's downlines, but I'll try to share some of them with you with their permission, along with a tutorial for my own swap card.  There are 19 downlines participating and I can't wait to get all of those cards in the mail!  Can you tell this is the very first card swap I've ever done?

There's something about this card that has that sort of old world-y Americana look to it, don't you think?  I'm a little disappointed in the picture.  Even though I tried to photograph this card in every room in my house, I just couldn't pick up the red glitter on the tree. 

Here are the supplies I used:

Stamp sets:  Lovely as a Tree, Pg. 110 #115026; Yuletide Christmas, Holiday Mini Catalog, Pg. 22 #116855; Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Pg. 132 #114996

Paper:  Natural Ivory Card Stock (CS) , Pg. 159 #101849; Old Olive CS, Pg. 156 #100702; Ruby Red CS, Pg. 156 #102030

Ink:  Old Olive, Pg. 156 #102277; Ruby Red, Pg. 156 #102259

Accessories:  Mat Pack, Pg. 191 #105826; Punches Plus Template, Pg. 188 #109539; Sleigh Bells Ribbon, Holiday Mini Catalog, Pg. 17 #116795; Fine Supernova Stampin' Glitter, Pg. 180 #114287; Snail Adhesive, Pg. 192 #104332; Stampin' Dimensionals, Pg. 192 #104430; Sponge Daubers, Pg. 192 #102892; Stamp-a-ma-jig, Pg. 191 #101049; 2-Way Glue Pen, Pg. 192 #100425;  Needle; Post-it note or other masking material.

Cut Old Olive CS 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" and score at 4-1/4" to form the card base.  Cut Natural Ivory CS 5-1/4" x 4" for card front.

Position the star template in the upper right corner of the card front. Punch holes with a needle.

Use the Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp the greeting in the lower right corner.

Wrap ribbon across the card front as shown and tape in back.  Now you can attach the card front to the card base.

Stamp the tree image on 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" Natural Ivory CS.

Now I'll show you how I added the tree decorations.  You could just dot the image with the 2-way glue pen and add glitter, but I wanted nice neat circles.

Stamp a tree image onto masking material and carefully cut out with paper snips or hobby blade.  (Save the masking and the tree cut out---we may be using them in a future project.)

Place the mask over the tree image and use the Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp random circles on the tree with Ruby Red ink.  I know, it sounds goofy to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig to stamp a random pattern, but I didn't want the dots to overlap.

Remove the mask and put a tiny dot of glue on each cirlce and add red glitter.  I think this would also look nice with emblossed red circles.

Attach the tree image to a 2-3/4" x 3-3/4" Ruby Red mat with Snail.  Position on the card as shown and attach with Stampin' Dimensionals.

Stampin' Dimensionals between the image and the Ruby Red mat would look nice, too, but you have to be kind of scimpy with the dimensionals if you're going to mail your card.  Last year, I wasn't sure if my cards would fit the new post office guidelines so I took them to the post office and ask the clerk how much postage I needed---just to be safe.  And I still got half of them back for more postage!!!  Oh man, now I'm getting mad all over again just thinking about it. Okay, shake it off, Mickey....

Thanks for stopping by today.  If you'd like to purchase the supplies to make this project, you can find them here:  Mickey's Stampin' Up! Website.

Now I'm off to the post office to mail my swaps to Dawn.  Then I can get busy on this month's "thank you" cards.  Then, my own Christmas cards!

Mickey