Winter Snowflakes "Birthday Hugs" Card

Do you have a January birthday or a friend with a January birthday? Then you know the experience of drab winters and canceled birthday parties is real. On this cheery snowflake birthday card, I love the bright colors on the card and hope that you do, too. It’s perfect when a friend can use a little pick-me-up with a birthday wish.

First, I began by selecting my card stock papers. These are the cutcardstock.com papers that I used:

Silk Glitter Opulent Opal 12x12 Card Stock; Basis Navy 80lb Cardstock; DCS Discount 8.5x11 Card Stock: Amaranth Pink; and Classic Crest DTC Solar White 165 lb Card Stock.

I matted a layer of the bright pink paper to navy card stock. I love how navy pops, especially in bright colors. I then matted the two onto the white glitter paper. This makes a nice frame — and matches the cut snowflakes.

Second, I gathered my snowflake metal die cuts and a snowflake dry embossing folder. For the die-cut snowflakes, I used white glitter card stock for the focus of my design. I put the largest cut on the top center and surrounded it with smaller snowflakes. 

Third, on the pink card stock, I used a white gel pen. I colored some of the falling snow from the embossing folder. I did this mostly on the bottom of the card to give the look of fallen snow.

Then, for the card sentiment, I used navy ink that picks up on the navy card stock layer. I used another metal die cut, a banner shape, to cut close to the sentiment. I adhered it to a strip of navy card stock paper to make the sentiment pop against the pink. I then added dimensional adhesive foam dots to raise the height of the sentiment. 

I hope that you enjoyed this how-to. Are you busy making seasonal birthday cards? I’d love it if you shared what you made!

A Red Cardinal in a Snowy Crate Box Card

I’d love to show you a box card that I made with a stunning die-cut cardinal and dimensional pine needles on branches made with beautiful cutcardstock.com papers. Nothing says January winter like a cardinal that you spot in nature.  

Here are the card stock colors that I used from cutcardstock.com:

Silk Glitter Opulent Opal 12x12 Card Stock

Stardream Metallic Saturn 126lb 8.5 x 11 Card Stock 

DCS Discount Card Stock: Orange Zest Card Stock

DCS Discount Card Stock: Vanilla Bean Brown Card Stock

DCS Discount Card Stock: Canvas Textured Beetle Black

DCS Discount Card Stock: Canvas Textured Mantis Green Card Stock

Lessebo Colors Hunter Green 83lb Cardstock

DCS Discount Card Stock: Red Pepper Card Stock

First, I uploaded the design into Design Space and changed the colors to the cardstock colors I already had on hand. 

Second, I cut the images out on my Cricut. It is important to group like-color cuts together because it can become confusing if you don’t. For example, you don’t want too many shades of one color. This simplifies things.

Third, I layered the cuts. For example, I used dark green pine needles as the base, then the light bright green on top of the dark green needles, and shimmering branches. You can fluff out the needles to make the branches look more dimensional.

For the crate, I dry embossed the panels to look like real wood grain. Then I added white glitter card stock to the crates folded over a triangle in the front — for the box card’s snowy crate. 

Here’s a close-up of how the colors look against the glitter cardstock. I love how it came out.
 

The pine cone is made of shimmery brown cardstock — and if you pull the pine cone’s petals up, that adds more shimmer and makes the die-cut look more dimensional. 

The finished project can be folded on either side into an envelope that fits the final crate, cardinal, and pine needles, fitting perfectly inside the envelope.

This makes a great gift for those cold snowy days and if you are lucky, you can catch a glimpse of a cardinal in the snowy tree limbs during the day. Are you working on projects with any cardinals? Please share, as I'd love to see it!