Earlier this month a brand new release hit the Ellen Hutson shop, and as I mentioned in my Release Review post, this one was FULL of goodies for every type of cardmaker – stamp sets with coordinating dies, hot foil plates, gift packaging, and even a stitching die for making ornaments for your tree. This is one you won’t want to sleep on, friends!
As I’m sure is the case for many of you, I’ve got a lot of holiday cards to make, write and send at the end of this month. One of the things that helps make that much easier (in addition to a great holiday playlist and a warm cozy beverage) is a big batch of pre-made sentiments, and the new Holiday Cheer hot foil stamp is absolutely perfect for this purpose.
A couple of weeks ago, I went on a mass sentiment making spree with all sorts of cardstock colors, an assortment of foil, and of course, the Holiday Cheer hot foil stamp. Since I can’t let good leftover foil go to waste, I also made a bunch with the Essentials by Ellen Press Plate, and it’s now safe to say that I’ve got a very healthy assortment to get me through the rest of the holiday season!
While making those sentiments, I had a few ideas for card designs and the project I’m sharing today is one of those. I thought it would be cute to use the Essential Squares, Essential Rectangles, and Essential 4-Bar Rectangles Dies to make a bunch of little gifts from patterned foiled cardstock. The process was easy – simply create some foiled patterns on colored cardstock using a few hot foil plates in my stash, then use the dies to cut out the small gift box shapes.
Once I had a bunch of little gift boxes die cut, I stamped and colored the bear image from last year’s Essentials by Ellen Sweet Surprises stamp set. I spent some time playing around with the arrangement of the gift boxes on top of the bear, stacking them up to make it look like he’s carrying a great big stack. Once I had the arrangement and spacing the way I wanted it, I took a photo with my phone for reference, then flipped the boxes over to apply adhesive and secured all of the elements in place.
The gift boxes needed a little something to make them look a bit more like gifts, and I didn’t have any embellishments in my stash that were quite right for the job. Instead, I used one of the tiny star dies from the Christmas Magic die set to cut some small stars from gold cardstock. (This was the same gold as in the rest of my foiling – I made my own DIY panel with the Essentials by Ellen Press Plate.) With the star bows adhered, I finished the card with a foiled ‘Happy Holidays’ sentiment strip.
That wraps up the how-to for this project, and I hope it’s inspired you to think about how you can get even more out of your already-versatile shape dies. You could easily adapt this design into one for a birthday card – or any gift giving occasion! Thanks so much for stopping by, and I’ll see you back here soon!