A 3-D Christmas--Part One

25 Fireplace Card

The busiest season of the year is upon us, and finding time to finish making cards for the last people on my list has been difficult.  There are so many choices this year with all the great new Sizzix dies!  From the Tim Holtz Tattered Poinsettia (used on the card shown above) to the new Pop 'n Cuts system from Karen Burniston, it is the most exciting year for card-making--especially if you love three dimensional elements as much as I do!  This will be the first of three blog posts showing a few ideas using some of the new seasonal dies from this year.

The first card shown above uses the Tattered Poinsettia die and the coordinating Texture Fades embossing folder to add texture and dimension to the petals.  I found a great packet of holiday paper called "Yuletide" by We R Memory Keepers.  It came in a labeled reusable hard plastic paper holder.  The colors are vibrant and modern, keeping the traditional red and green.  I really enjoyed the use of the 'faux bois' (or false wood) pattern on several pieces of this excellent two-sided cardstock.  Nearly all the papers in this project are constructed from this packet. The "25" is from the Sizzix Decorative Strip Die Stacked Words: Christmas.  Now let's journey to the inside of this fun 3-D card!

When the Pop 'n Cuts Noel insert and the coordinating Sizzlets arrived (I was a winner of these on Karen Burniston's blog), I decided it would make a perfect fireplace scene and deliver a holiday greeting, too.  After cutting the Noel pop-up for the inside of the card from the plain red cardstock in the kit, using Tim Holtz's Texture Fades embossing folder with the brick pattern, I ran the top section of the cut pop-up card mechanism through the Vagabond inside the embossing folder to give it a brick pattern.  Color was added to the red brick with Distress Inks: Mahogany, Brick Red, and Black.  This makes the bricks pop!  I drew a fireplace shape on copy paper and used it as a template to cut the top part of the fireplace into a fireplace shape.

View from the top

Next, the polka dot paper with the brown faux bois print on the other side became the outside of the card.  After folding the pop-up mechanism, I trimmed the bottom part off, leaving about 2 inches beneath the "Noel" to secure to the outer card.  The inside pop-up was then adhered to the outer card after folding the Noel into the pop-up shape.  I loved the look of the faux bois on the inside.  It makes the fireplace look like it is in a room with paneling on the wall and hardwood on the floors.  But it needed a hearth rug, so I cut a piece of cardstock from scraps.  The one on the right is from the Yuletide collection, and the one on the left is from an old scrap of cardstock from my scrap drawer. 

The top of the pop-up looks kind of like a mantel, so I added a piece of scrap from the same faux bois pattern.  I really wanted to add some things to the mantel, but I decided it would impede the closing of the pop-up, so I did the next best thing and added two little matted photos to the "wall" behind it.  The wreath is the Tim Holtz Movers and Shapers Wreath and Bow.  

I used some Smooch Ink to put berries on the wreath after shading it with Distress Inks and the blender tool.  Smooch Glitz was added to the bow to give it some sparkle.

The green "Noel" accent over the pop-up are is cut from the green faux bois pattern from the Yuletide collection using the Sizzlet 3 Pack Noel set that coordinates with the Pop 'n Cuts Noel insert die and the double pop-up tree card.  The poinsettia from this set can also be used with the original Pop 'n Cuts round insert.

The fireplace needed a little fire, so an old Sizzix original die, Blazing Sun, was cut from orange and yellow gold card stock, cut in half and mounted to the area under the mantel and behind the Noel pop-up.   See details below.  Come back in a couple of days to see another fun card using Sizzix and the fun pop-up elements now available.  The third installment in this series will be a treat bag treatment with one of these fun dies.  Don't forget to leave a comment!  I love all your feedback.

Close up details of the fire in the fireplace