Warm Winter Wishes
by Christina Rannow

Hello, friends! It’s Christina, and today I’m sharing a cozy card, featuring the Block Print Heart Cardinal die set, which is perfect for the holiday season or just a wintery hello. I love cardinals, especially at Christmas time and when paired with a contrasting mint green color. I used that combination for this card design, tucking the cardinal in some winter greenery with glittery berries and framing everything with a Loop Stitch Frame. Let’s take a look at how this wintery card came together.

My first step was to create the background panel. I started with mint green cardstock and die-cut it using the largest Loop Stitch Frame. Then I used Pine Needles Distress Ink and blended in color just around the edges of the frame to create a lighter center area. To give this frame panel a frosty, snowy effect, I spattered it with both an opaque white and a glitter splatter medium. Finally, I popped this up onto a 4.25 x 5.5 inch mint green cardstock panel with foam tape. 

My next step was to die-cut all the other elements for my design. I started with colored cardstock for the components of the cardinal and the greenery and, using a small blending brush, added subtle shading to each piece with a darker coordinating ink color. Then I assembled the cardinal and the holly leaves, securing the pieces with a liquid adhesive. I chose a white glitter cardstock for the berries and the sentiment but used mint green cardstock to die-cut the shadow piece for the sentiment. Before gluing the glittery sentiment onto the shadow piece, I very lightly added color to the edges with whatever color was leftover on my green blending brush. 

Before assembling my card design, I spattered the greenery pieces with the same splatter mediums I used to spatter the Loop Stitch Frame panel. I let this dry before layering the greenery onto my card front, starting in the bottom left corner and securing the pieces with either a liquid adhesive or thin foam squares depending on their placement and if they overlapped another element. Generally, the elements in the very background are secured with a liquid adhesive, and the elements in the foreground are attached with foam squares. When I was happy with the placement of the greenery, I attached the cardinal, popping it up with regular foam squares in the lower left corner. Finally, I added the glittery berries and the sentiment before adhering the card front to a top-fold card base. 

Thank you so much for reading about how this cozy wintery card featuring the Block Print Heart Cardinal came together. See you again soon!

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.