Today's sample is embossed in gold and colored with Copics, the popped up balls in the corners are from Asela's new "First Christmas". Cardbase is Vibrant Violet.This set coordinates perfectly with "Winter Foliage" and "A Year of Flowers". You will love popping up the pine cones and poinsettias from these sets into the oval window or onto the corners, or stamping them inside your card for a custom finish!
Stamp the poinsettias again and cut out just a few individual leaves from it to pop up over the ones in the frame.
Add metallic dots, pearls, nail heads or large buttons to the middle of the poinsettias to dress them up.
Stamp the frame in brown and use distressing inks to create a vintage look.
Create beautiful one or two layer cards without coloring in a flash by embossing the frame and greeting onto neutral or colored CS. A metallic powder on white or ivory cardstock will be "soft sophistication", and metallic, white or black on jewel tones colors cardstocks like red, green, navy or cranberry are fabulously festive! Color in your embossing for a real "WOW"!
Try tone on tone embossing with silver and gold powders and metallic cardstocks like Silver Lining and Good as Gold.Try mixing glitter into your EP when embossing the frame for extra sparkle!
Add Stickles over your coloring, or trace the outlines of the petals, pine needles and cones with a Stardust pen.
Add flocking or Flower Soft to the centers of your poinsettias or on your pine cones. Create a dusting of snow on your pine cones with Liquid Applique.
Other Gina K Designs sets with images and verses in a style well suited for the corners or the oval window in the middle:
Christmas Blessings
A Very Merry Christmas
Lord of the Season
StampTV Kit Holiday Cheer
Warm & Cozy Christmas
Holiday Hospitality
First Christmas
Seasonal Sayings
Layering cut leaves from "A Year of Leaves" over the poinsettias and its greetings to the center will make amazing cards for autumn!
Two elegant flourishes have been provided to stamp above or below your sentiment or at the corners of a mat when you stamp a greeting (one from this set or try it with any other classic and elegant greetings in your stamp collection!), to make it a bit more formal or when you need to fill in a bit more space on the mat or die cut for a balanced look.
Cut out the oval in the center for more dimension like a real window. Use Oval Nestabilties to cut out the middle quickly or use scissors to snip around the flowers. You can also layer these scalloped and classic oval mats directly over the widow, overlapping the flowers.
Oval Nestabilities in sizes smaller than the window look beautiful popped up and centered inside the oval border.
Other Nestabilities shapes Gina K sells to try in the middle of the oval window to change the look are the many labels dies, some you probably have in your collection! Whether you leave some of the oval from the image showing or cover it completely with your die cut, the poinsettia bunches will be set off to spectacular effect, enjoy mixing and matching!
The frame can be used 4 ways, vertically or horizontally to perfectly frame up your images or greetings and give you more variety in your layouts. The flowers and foliage extend into the oval frame a bit differently in each corner, one side more so than the other, so depending on how your image or greeting is arranged, you can choose which best suits your layout (top or bottom "heavy" to insure you are not covering up an important part of the picture or words.)
The greetings have been intentionally formatted to work well whether you are using the frame vertically or horizontally.
The greetings used alone on a mat over some DP makes a quick and beautiful card!
Stamp the frame inside your card in Versamark or contrasting color to you CS to add your greeting or handwritten message for a really professional, coordinated look for the inside of your card.
Stamp the frame on your envelope and add your recipient's name and address inside.
Add a family photo inside the oval cut out for easy holiday cards. 3x5 is a perfect size. Mat onto an A2 base with photo underneath or stamp directly onto the base and cut out the window with a larger photo adhered inside your card. Add other holiday stamp or images in the oval window or to the corners, layering over the poinsettia or on the opposite corners for a fuller frame.
Place a layer of vellum over your photo to soften the look. Stamp a greeting on the vellum for a floating effect.
Stamp the frame directly onto vellum, trim and layer over a rectangular photo without cutting out the window: this allows you to see the entire rectangle of the picture but spotlights the middle of your photo in the oval.
To make a more masculine looking card, layer pine cones over the poinsettia or even masculine images for year round birthday or greeting cards (ex: tent from Happy Camper".
Stamp with and onto neutral colors to make a more the frame "masculine- looking" or to give it more of "nature" than a "holiday" feel, this will allow year round use.
After stamping the frame, go over the cardstock with one of the many Cuttlebug embossing folders to add texture and dimension.
Mix the greetings from all our latest holiday sets with the frame or try Gina K's "Seasonal Greetings", another great option!
Greetings in the set like "Celebrate the beauty of the season" and "from all of us" will take you well past December for New Years and other holidays.
Add a photo to the middle window and stamp one of the greetings over it in white ink (or embossed white) like an overlay.
Put one greeting on the outside and another on the inside to continue the message. Ex: "We wish you a Merry Christmas!" and inside "and a Happy New Year!"
Ink up just one cluster from the frame or cut around them to make a beautiful corner to add to your cards and scrapbook pages.
Stamp frame over a very delicate, pale patterned paper and color the flowers, pine cones, and border to make the images pop. Adds color without having to paper piece!
Create a reverse mask of just the oval cut out and another mask removing just the blank corners to stamp textures into these spaces or sponge on color without going over the images.
Color the double border around the edge and the oval window with a marker or colored pencil; this will instantly add layers without all the cutting, CS, adhesive, without adding bulk AND saving you time and money!
To add simple detail to the blank corners, try:
- piercing the corners or a row of dots to mimic the border
- add a little tag or stamp a smaller greeting
- add buttons, pearls, rhinestones, brads etc
- add a corner punch or flourish.
- add a small or big, beautiful bow!
Projects:
Use as a mat for a picture frame, as a gift or to bring out to decorate at the holidays with a photo or scripture or quote from the set.
Stamp frame and greeting onto a plain gift bag for lightning fast gift wrap! Or attach a card with the frame on it to a 4x6 or larger gift bag.
More fast packaging: adhere the stamped frame to the center of a plain white gift box with an image or the "to: and from: info" in the center.
Make gorgeous gift tags with the many greetings in the set on punches or die cuts.
Adhere frame to a magnetic sheet and cut out oval portion. Now you have a frame for the fridge or office to place over your favorite holiday photo of the moment, year after year!
Stamped candles: stamp frame onto tissue paper, color, wrap around a pillar candle and heat! Beautiful and inexpensive gifts, see this post.
Add the frame to decorate your homemade family calendars.
Create a special invitation to a holiday dinner or open house, printing the party info inside or in the oval window.
Create a menu card to match, listing the courses inside the window for an elegant table setting!
Slip the stamped and colored frame into an acrylic frame to gift or decorate your kitchen for the holiday months for a little wipe off kitchen menu or memo board. (Writing out the family meal makes it extra special...) :)
Beautiful card! Thanks for all your great tips! I just spent 2 weeks with son's family in RR. Boy was it hot!
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