Christmas Collage

Here's another of my vintage-style collage cards. It was so much fun to make and I love the way it turned out. Now if I can just remember all the elements that went into making this card. I started by looking through all my vintage style stamps and all the ones I had borrowed for the season. The first thing I do when I make a collage card is to make the different elements. I stamped using Versamark and gold detail EP. I first made a tag of the boy building a snowman using the retired SU set Sweet Seasons. The tag was cut with a Nestabilities tag die set (don't remember what is is called since the original packaging is long gone). I stamped the Santa from Old Fashioned Christmas and cut with a scalloped square Nestie. Then I stamped Joy from the Joy set and cut it out. All three pieces were sponged with Creamy Caramel to age them. The JOY piece was also distressed using scissors and the edges sponged with Chocolate Chip ink. The piece of ephemra you can see in the backgorund is a mini post card stamp from Club Scrap that was embossed in red and heavily sponged with Creamy Caramel. The card is mounted on a shell of brushed gold followed by a layer of Riding Hood Red textured cardstock. The top layer of DSP is from last Christmas' Cosmo Cricket Be Good series DPS. I love it and am still hording one full sheet! I also punched a reinforcement for the tag out of the Riding Hood Red cardstock and added a red gingham ribbon from Jo-Ann's to the tag.

There is a double row of machine stitching using gold thread around the border of the DSP. The red flower was created using the Riding Hood Red textured cardstock cut with the CB Flowers die. I cut two, dampened them with a sprinkle or two of water and shaped the petals to curve upward and then layered them. The two leaves were punched with a Martha Stewart punch and three tiny topaz rhinestones were added. I don't have one large solid star die so the star was cut with the CB Concentric Stars die. I mounted the whole piece of chipboard on a piece of cardstock to keep them from separating and then embossed with the Egyptian Gold EP from Judi-Kins, punched holes, threaded with gold cord and wrapped the cord back around the opposing corner. The inside of the card is also finished off with multiple layers, DSP, gold stitching and a lovely little angel from the SU Yultide Montage set.