Scor-Pal December Challenge -- Anything Goes Christmas

The December challenge on the Scor-Pal blog is "Anything Goes Christmas."  I love making pop-up box cards with my Scor-Pal, but I wanted to try something a bit different.  I had made a pop-up box card once before in which I placed an acetate sheet on the front so that you could see inside the box.  That's what I did for this month's challenge also.  The top of the box is chock full of pretty Christmas foliage . . .

. . . but the inside has a cozy little fireplace scene.

Universal Studios Christmas

My daughter has an annual pass to the Universal Studios theme park in Orlando.  A group of the passholders are having a Christmas party, and she asked me to make a unique card for her to attach to the gift she's taking for their Chinese gift exchange.  She wanted it to include as many of the characters represented at the park as I could.  So, using some computer images and some Kindred Stamps characters, I created this card for her.

The inside was made using Karen Burniston's Twist Panel Pop-Up die and includes quite a few characters.

I hope she (and the recipient) like this personalized card.

CCEE1848 Circles and Squares

Anne winds up her month as hostess for the CCEE Stampers with a relatively simple challenge -- make a card using at least one circle and one square.  As Christmas is right around the corner, I made a Christmas card using some Heartfelt Creations patterned paper.

Stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog for some more cards with circles and squares.

Pop-Up Nativity Card

My favorite challenge on Splitcoaststampers has always been the Saturday Inspiration Challenge.  Today's inspiration website was Caspari, a site filled with all kinds of wonderful things for Christmas.  This Nativity 3D Advent Calendar was my inspiration today.

I used several different media to create my card.  The front is a relatively simple design, featuring some gorgeous patterned paper I found in Hobby Lobby earlier in the week.  It is called Stargazing from The Paper Studio.  I used one of the designs for my background and just stamped an image and a sentiment on top.

The "inspiration" was developed on the inside, where I combined several different die sets to create my Nativity scene.  The pop-up portion and the stable in the background are part of the Karen Burniston House and Fence Pop-Up die set.  The figures are from two different CottageCutz dies, Nativity - Mary, Angel and Baby and Nativity - Joseph, Shepherd and Animals.

Before I cut the "stable," I glued a piece of woodgrain patterned paper onto the brown cardstock I used.  I also added a section to either side of the stable to extend the sides over to the edge of the floating floor, as you can see here.

I didn't want the fence to look like a wrought-iron fence; so, after I cut it from brown cardstock, I trimmed the fence posts, taking off the pointed tops.

Here again is my version of my inspiration piece.

CCEE1847 - Humorous Birthday

Anne continues as hostess of the CCEE Stampers this week and tells us that today is her daughter's birthday.  She says that Amy (her daughter) loves to get funny cards and challenges us to make a birthday card -- extra points if it's humorous.  Art Impressions makes some really humorous stamp sets, so I pulled out their Spring Chicken set and made this card.

The inside says something that is close to what my feelings are about growing older.  I've always said, "Getting old is not for sissies," but you get the idea!

Stop over at the CCEE Stampers blog to see some more birthday cards -- humorous or otherwise.

Candle Easel Card

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is this week -- and with that comes Christmas right around the corner.  I'm still making Christmas cards, and that's what I have for you today -- using one of the dies from the CottageCutz Christmas release as well as a couple of older dies.

As you may know, I love making fun fold cards -- today's is an easel card.

To start my card, I cut all the die pieces from white cardstock.

I lightly sponged the glass candle holder pieces with Ranger Distress Tumbled Glass ink.  The rest of the pieces were colored using Copic markers.  When they were all colored, I assembled my candle holder.

I then cut the cardstock and patterned paper for my card.

Red - 4 1/4" x 8 1/2", 4 1/4" square
Patterned paper - 3 1/2" x 3 1/2"
White - die cut the largest Pierced Wide Square Frame

The large red piece of cardstock was scored at 2 1/8" and 4 1/4".

After folding on the score lines, I placed some Scor-Tape on the first 2 1/8" x 4 1/4" panel.  This is where the square panel will be attached.

I then adhered the patterned paper to the square red panel and attached it to the folded base.

I placed foam tape on the back of the frame and the candle holder . . .

. . . and attached them to the card front.

At this point I decided I wanted to add another element to the card, so I cut some additional pieces from the die, colored and constructed a small sprig of foliage, and attached it to the upper left-hand corner of the frame.

With an easel card, you need something to act as a "bumper" to hold the easel erect.  I often use a sentiment to do that.  I cut "celebrate" five times from red cardstock.

After gluing the die-cut pieces together, I placed the sentiment on the under panel on which I had placed a 4" square of patterned paper.

The word "celebrate" is high enough to hold the card open for display.

CottageCutz used on my card are:

Christmas Castle

Several months ago I made a Halloween castle card, using the Karen Burniston Castle Pop-Up die.  I thought I would give a Christmas castle a try.  I've got tons of Christmas paper, so the hardest part was deciding which patterned paper to use on my card.  I finally decided and put my card together.

The front includes a Santa and sleigh flying across the top.  That's an Impression Obsession die.  In addition to the Karen Burniston Castle Pop-Up set, I also used some wreaths from both the House & Fence die set and the Sleigh die set.

I carried the same theme into the inside of my card, adding the fence from the House & Fence die as well.

I took some close-up photos so that you can see the castle in more detail.

This was such a fun project!