Stampin' Up Dasher Christmas Gift Card holder

Hi blogging friends  

Well, my little Stampin' Up Dasher stamp is getting a work-out this Christmas season - you will be tired of seeing him!   I was really looking for an excuse to use my new Marianne Design die (an early Christmas present for me!) - oh my goodness, I LOVE it - it is so pretty and lacey - and as I have stamped a whole lot of circles with Dasher ready to pop on cards, the image was going to fit the diecut perfectly.  A match made in heaven!!  Love it when that happens!

This particular card is going to the family member that we picked out of the hat from our family's Secret Santa Sibling draw.  We don't buy presents for each sibling/sibling-in-law at Christmas.  Every November, everyone fills in a form of their "most eagerly desired gift" (we usually list 4 choices) and we put all the forms in a hat, pick one out and spend a decent amount for that one person.  With family spread all over Australia, many of us just ask for a Gift Card because it is much cheaper to post than something big and heavy.

Of course, all the little nieces and nephews get a Christmas present - and I LOVE to watch the delight in their little faces as they tear open the wrapping paper - and honestly, if I got nothing for Christmas, it wouldn't worry me:  just seeing my own daughter and the nieces/nephews have so much fun is a gift enough in itself.  They are only little for such a short time!  Anyway, onto the card itself............

Dasher is stamped with Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment ink and heat-set with Satin Pearl clear embossing powder.  And I popped the usual tiny red rhinestone on his nose to turn him into Rudolph.  This main panel is up on dimensionals.

The burgundy side panel was embossed with my Big Shot and one of the folders from the Sizzix Winter Set #3 which I thought matched Dasher's antlers really well the way the embossing looked all swirly. 

I diecut some snowflakes and inked the edges with Sapphire Silk ink, added Ice Blue rhinestones and popped them up on dimensionals, then added the same colour rhinestones to the bottom RHS.

Before I did the card inside, I picked up the card to show my DH only to realise that my card opened backwards!  Yep, my frequent trick of NOT checking that I am layering the front of the card the way that I should.  Ack - I can't believe how many times I do it!!  Still, it is not hard to fix as I just cut the front panel off and stuck it to another card base; it's just annoying and takes up time - and at least I didn't do the card inside before I found out - or you would be hearing my screams from here 'cos it HAD to be in the mail THAT DAY!!

The card inside:

I used the same Marianne die for the sentiment panel and inked the edges of the white cardstock circle lightly with the Sapphire Silk ink and heat-set it so I didn't smear it (it takes quite a while to just air-dry and I have no patience!!).   The sentiment is a Kaisercraft clear stamp and was stamped with Sapphire Silk ink and heat-embossed with Satin Pearl embossing powder.  This Kaisercraft sentiment set is good value as they are around $2.00 and you get 4 different Christmas sentiments all in different fonts - plus they have a good range of sentiment sets to suit every occasion so I have a whole bunch of them.

Where the gift card tucks in, I stamped the Hero Arts Holiday Background stamp with Versamark Watermark ink onto the burgundy cardstock, diecut the ice blue cardstock using a Nellie Snellen border die which seemed to match the other Marianne die quite nicely and adhered just the bottom and sides of the panel so that the Coles/Myer Gift card tucks in nicely.  Here is a close-up pick of this section:

Finished card size is 5" x 5" or metric about 12.5cm x 12.5cm

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following challenges -

The ABC Challenge - F is for Frosty - Use snowy scenes, snowflakes, a snowman, or anything you can think of to get your frosty fun out.

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Last Christmas Card of the Year - this is their final festive challenge for the year.

My daughter is hoping for a white Christmas but well, it is Summer here and it is far more likely to be boiling hot!  Although I do remember one Christmas where it did actually snow on the Alps in my State and it was bitterly cold where we live - just a freak of nature that day!

My daughter loves snowmen and all things snowy as much as I do and this year, she wouldn't let me display my two (stuffed) snowmen that I always put out with the Christmas decs; she has taken them to bed with her every night instead!  They are about 12 inches (30 cms) tall and I usually put them up high on top of my buffet and hutch because my cat Ruby likes to grab them in a smothery hug and kick them with her back feet and bite them like it is some sort of prey that she has caught.  Looks cute but they wouldn't last long with that sort of treatment.  I have a sneaking suspicion that when all the Christmas stuff is packed away, they will still be sleeping with my daughter!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Stampin' Up Dasher, Kaisercraft Mini CS926 Christmas clear stamp set, Hero Arts Holiday Background CG-324 Cling Rubber

Ink:  Colorbox Sapphire Silk pigment, Versamark Watermark

Designer paper:  Echo Park - Wintertime

Accessories:  Big Shot, Marianne Design die CR1201 (lacey circle), Nellie Snellen border die MFD 023, Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities, satin pearl clear embossing powder, heat-gun, Basic Grey red rhinestone, Kaisercraft Ice Blue SB774 rhinestones, dimensionals, sparkly ice blue ribbon, Spellbinder Circle Nestabilities, Sizzix Textured Impressions Winter Set #3 embossing folder, My Favorite Things 'Let it Snowflake' Die-namics dies, cardstock:  burgundy, ice blue, white