All Is Calm

Morning all!

I'm back with my last project of the year before the store closes for the Christmas break.

Today's card is a bit of a wintry mash-up (and a trip down memory lane for Concord and 9th fans!).

I've used what I think is the first ever Concord & 9th die set I ever bought and have combined it with a more recent festive favourite.

Way back when, well before Home for the Holidays and Over the Rooftops, Concord and 9th brought out their original dimensional Christmas scene die set: Christmas Cottage.

That set and the coordinating stamps are now retired, but available in very limited stock in the store, so grab them while you can!

Otherwise, you can achieve a similar look with other wintry scene sets like Home for the Holidays and MFT's My Neighborhood dies and any border dies with a treeline.

But back to this card! I've combined the Christmas Cottage dies with the Card Stacks Base die set.

Once I'd cut the card stack base from smooth white cardstock, I blended Distress Oxides over the back and sides, leaving the bottom third white for snow. And it wouldn't be a snowy scene without plenty of white paint splatter!

While the background was drying, it was time to prepare the Christmas Cottage layers.

Tip: The Christmas Cottage dies were specifically designed for stacked cards and have notches to indicate where you need to score a line. It's a good idea to use a Sharpie to mark these notches on the back of the dies so you can more easily see where they will cut.

To fit the Christmas Cottage layers inside the Card Stacks Base, I cut the following sizes of white cardstock strips:

• Treeline - 3 x 4.75 inches

• Single tree - 3.5 x 4.75 inches

• Cottage - 2 x 4.75 inches

Before cutting the layers, I scored lines 1/4 of an inch in at each end of the 4.75 inch length. That way I was able to line up the notches on the dies with the score lines, keeping the top of these dies as near as possible to the top edge of the cardstock, and securing with a piece of washi tape to run them through my die-cutting machine.

Once all the layers were cut, I reinforced the scorelines with a bone folder and applied thin score tape to the edges. It's also a good idea to shave off a little of the right-hand edge of the back treeline layer, so there is a bit of wiggle room for assembly later on.

This is also the time to add any further "fiddly" decorations to your layers.

For this card, I stamped a sentiment from the Home for the Holidays mini stamp set directly below the cottage, adding dew droplets for a little icy detail. I also cut the moon and chimney smoke from silver glitter cardstock and cut the snow on the roof from the white cardstock but added some Wink of Stella to this layer once it was stuck down for some frosty detail. I set the moon aside to add later once the card was assembled, and I could decide where I wanted to put it.

For card stack assembly, I use the technique Jennifer McGuire shows in her video here to attach the layers to the card base. The relevant bit is 9 minutes 15 seconds in.

Once my card was assembled, I just needed to add that tiny glittery moon and a little message on the back – all ready for sending.

It just remains for me to say I hope you have a lovely festive break and wish you a very crafty 2024!