Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog: Sketches, Santas & surprises with Allison Cope!

Hello SCT friends! It's Allison and I’ll be your hostess for Card Café Thursday. You know, a card isn’t just a card anymore! It can be so much more!

Today I’m going to share a card based on a card sketch by the lovely Becky Fleck. Becky provides Scrapbook & Cards Today readers with so much amazing inspiration with her incredible designs so I thought I’d feature this sketch below, a sketch featured here in 2012.

Now looking at this sketch, it has so many cool possibilities but with the holiday season soon upon us, I thought I’d create an extra special Christmas card that you too can make with ease.

I began my card by picking some gorgeous holiday papers by My Mind’s Eye. I used the new “Sleigh Bells Ring” and “Joyous” paper and embellishment collections.

I started by creating a fun layered snowflake using some snowflake die shaped cut outs with sanded edges for an aged look plus a sweet little brad embellishment with a Santa face on it for the center piece of the snowflake. Just before adhering all of my fun layers together, I thought “why not make this part of my card removable and make it into an ornament!”. Viola… so between my two snowflakes I sandwiched a knotted loop of jute twine to create a hanger for my snowflake ornament. I added a fun seam binding bow and a removable ornament was born!

The photo above shows how I simply attached my ornament to my card, on the inside, by using a piece of fun washi tape. This will allow the ornament to be detached from the card easily!

Knowing that I needed a card to attach my ornament to and wanting to follow the sketch, I made a very basic card base to feature my snowflake Santa.

I used Becky’s basic card design, some elegant AND whimsical papers together, along with some thread and a stunning gift label also from My Mind’s Eye.

TIP: Here’s an easy way to get a white edge on your papers without cutting a white mat; take some sandpaper (or a nail file in my case!) and sand off the edge of your patterned paper to reveal the white core of the paper. It’s a way to add a mat without adding any more weight or layers to your card!

And here’s my finished card with its hanging Santa snowflake ornament…

Simple. Easy. And your recipient gets to keep a little piece of the holiday fun that you made for them!

I hope I’ve inspired you to create and think beyond the card today! Try adding a holiday photo to your ornament or make a shaker element to hang on the tree. The ideas are endless… so get creating!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Allison Cope~

Supplies: Patterned paper, Brads, Stickers, My Mind’s Eye: Dies, Spellbinders: Jute Twine, Darice: Other, Seam binding ribbon, thread.