Die Cut Camouflage Christmas Card

I am taking a great online class right now called “Merry Making” offered by onlinecardclasses.com. Yesterday’s class was all about die cuts which is what inspired this card. 

I started with a piece of patterned paper from Close to my Heart’s Silver & Gold Collection. I distressed the paper by sponging some Glacier, Juniper, and Lagoon ink on it first. I also stamped some “splats” using the Splash of Color stamp set. Then I stamped some snowflakes and swirls from the stamp that comes with the Merriest Wishes Card Kit in Pebble and Heather ink. Finally I heat embossed some stars from the First Noel stamp set and the edges of the paper with Silver Embossing Powder. (You can see what the original paper looked like, before I distressed it, in the background of my photos.)  

After creating the background paper, I used the Thin Cuts Block Alphabet dies to cut the word “JOY” from the paper. I also cut the letters 3 more times from a piece of white cardstock. I layered the white cardstock letters on top of each other to create a thick chipboard look. Then I adhered the patterned paper letters on top. After matting the patterned paper to the card base, I adhered the faux chipboard letters in the openings which created the “camouflage” effect.

I die cut a white cardstock banner shape using the medium banner from the Thin Cuts Basic Banners set, then embossed the sentiment from the First Noel stamp set with Silver Embossing Powder. I also embossed a thin strip of white cardstock with the word Christmas from the same stamp set and trimmed it so it looks like it’s tucked in under the letter “Y.” I added a few Bitty Sparkles to the tiny stars to finish off the card.

I love that the card looks so different depending on the angle. The dimension from the die cut “camouflage” letters is so much fun!