Quick Card Santa - Pink AmarylisCompleted by Pamela Horton The whispering Platypus

Making Christmas greeting cards at this time of the year suits many recipients who celebrate Christmas in July, but also for me it gives me a chance to make greeting cards with spending more time planning how to make my cards with that point of difference.

I have printed the sheet, provided by Grufbears Craft, 3 times. I made 2 copies onto the one 120gsm white A4 sheet to use as part of the topper and once onto white 80gsm copy paper which I have used as part of the insert.

I used Crafty Bob’s 200gsm white photo paper to cut score and fold to make a 15x10.5cm card front. I defined the edges using a metallic gold pencil then attached the textured bronze satin finished 13.75x9.75cm backing sheet, using D.S. tape.

I made the topper using one, carefully cut out using tiny scissors, main 11x 7.5cm image to attach using D.S. tape to a bright sky blue 12x8cm backing sheet.

I have then used the gold glitter ribbon to attach horizontally to the back of the blue backing sheet 3cm down from the top edge.

The next backing sheet is a soft red, to match the shade of the Amarylis flowers, cut at 13 x 9cm which I have attached using D.S. tape.

I have used gold, silver glitter decorative peel off strips to attach to the outside edges of the red backing paper before the gold glitter ribbon is wrapped around to the back of the red backing paper and attached firmly at the back.

I attached this completed section of the topper to the card front using padded D.S. tape to give more dimension to the image.

I have then used the second 120gsm copy of the main image to cut out the very bottom roll of the scroll, the top image of Santa including the flower, the starry sky, the lantern and the sack of toys.

I also cut out the lower flower including the red stamp with the sentiment. I attached each of these elements using my glue roller tape onto 200gsm card and re-cut them out carefully before attaching them to the topper as decoupage using my roller glue tape.

This avoided the use of lots of tiny padded squares and dots cut to fit and the concern of the padded tape being visible behind the small images.

I used red power tape to attach the bow made from a 24cm length of the same gold glitter ribbon and added glitter glue to enhance Santa’s fur, the flower centres and the hanging snow flake.

I set this aside to dry while I made the insert.

I printed the verse I have chosen from the free verse section to print onto the right hand side of A4 white copy paper in the landscape position, then cut it down to 21cm x 15cm and edged it with the same gold metallic pencil before attaching it to the inside of the card.

I used the 80gsm copy of the main image to attach onto the left hand side of the insert and the flowers from the original 120gsm sheet to attach to the right hand side as embellishments.

I am more than delighted with the outcome of this project and I have some images left over to enhance and embellish other projects and future cards made from this sheet.

Pamela Horton. The whispering Platypus.