Christmas with a twist!

At this time of year everyone is in full-on festive mode, myself included. Most craft company's release their Christmas products around September/October time and we here at Sizzix are no exception. I will be blogging Christmas ideas right up until the day itself but there are some great dies being released right now which it would be a crime not to feature so I decided to set myself a little challenge.

I wanted to create Christmas cards with a contemporary feel using non-traditional colour palettes alongside non-traditional dies. Only you can judge if I managed to pull it off.... No pressure then?

 The dies I used come from a great collection by the designer Lori Whitlock and I should point out that I've cheated already by adding some of the Tim Holtz festive word dies, I knew it wouldn't last long!

• Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 6PK - Simple Flowers (659895)
• Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 7PK - Simple Flowers #2 (659949)
• Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 14PK - Hello Life (659892)
• Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 17PK - Holiday Words: Block by Tim Holtz (660057)

I took the various colours from bits and pieces in my stash and I couldn't resist reaching for my good old Dymo label maker, remember when they were cutting edge tech in the 70's and kids of all ages plastered the house with sticky labels?

I started by die-cutting one silver, one gold and one ivory flower. I used a ball end stylus tool and foam mat from the Susan's Garden tool kit to form the flowers and add dimension, I took the eight pieces from the flower detail of the silver die-cut and gently curled each one with my stylus

I attached each curled piece to the centre of the gold flower at the narrow end using PVA glue, tweezers and a steady hand! Next, I took my ivory flower and giving it a light coating of spray adhesive, I then sprinkled the flower with Distress Glitter and shook off the excess before mounting the two flowers together.

I die-cut two leaves from silver card before adding the embossed detail with my Impressions Pad and Silicone Mat I next die cut the rounded corner rectangle before adding the 'PEACE' aperture with one of the holiday words dies. Next I die- cut the tabbed rectangle from gold card adding the arrow aperture. It is gold honestly, I know it looks mustard yellow! you just can't get the photographers these days!!!

All that remains is to mount all the bits together adding the Dymo part of the phrase held on by a paper clip and a sparkly gem to the centre of the flower before attaching it to the face of an A6 ivory card blank. I love mixing different metallics and I really like the effect. I liked it so much I couldn't stop at one card so there are a few more below for good measure, I hope you like them?

This card also has a very minimalistic modern vibe and I have taken Scandinavian winter interiors as my influence on the colour palette.

I do love these aqua blues with white and silver but I think it is the black strip which sets it off.

I know what I said at the start of this blog but I couldn't resist a bit of red either!!!