Hey y’all !! Kim Dixon here for the Pictorial Design Team....I don’t know about you, but sometimes my creative juices just hit a brick wall. I have an idea in my head of a project that I want to make and it works perfectly…in my head. Bringing that idea to fruition sometimes just never happens. That’s what happened to me this week. I had this awesome bridge card that I wanted to bring to you and the more I tried the worse it got. After making three different versions, I just wasn’t happy at all. So, after a few minutes of pouting (ok…it was hours…) I decided to go in a COMPLETELY different direction. Sometimes, I get the thought in my head that everything has to have some sort of bell and/or whistle or use some fancy tool. But actually, sometimes what I need to do to get my creative juices flowing again is return to what I know. Return to what I’m comfortable with. So, I pulled out a gorgeous Christmas paper pack and clean and simple card…I let that paper do the work.
Here are the supplies I used:
Red card base cut from the Neenah Textures Cardstock pack
Farmhouse Christmas 12x12 Collection Paper Pack
Art Glitter Glue
1. Cut an 8 ½” x 5 ½” card base out of the red Neenah Textures Cardstock. Since we’re making a gatefold card, score the red card base at 2 1/8” along the 8 ½” side. Flip and score again at 2 1/8”.
2. For the mats for the outside of the card, cut 2 mats from the green polka dot at 2” x 5 3/8”. From the holly print, cut 2 mats at 1 7/8” x 5 ¼”.
3. Using Art Glitter Glue, glue a green polka mat to each side of the front of your card base.
4. Now glue one of the holly print mats to each side of the card base on top of the green polka dot mat.
5. For the inside of the card, choose one of the 3” x 4” cut-aparts from the paper pack. I fell in love with the barn and had to use it. Cut a mat for this cut-apart from the green polka dot. The dimensions of that mat should be 3 1/8” x 4 1/8”.
6. Glue the cut-apart to the mat and glue that into the center panel of the card base. I placed mine up toward the top to leave me a little room to sign below.
7. Now we need something to hold the gatefold closed so let’s make a belly band. Again, pull out the green polka dot paper from the paper pack and cut a piece 2” x 11”. Holding the belly band piece you just cut and the card, wrap the belly band piece around the card. Don’t make the belly band too tight. Leave a little bit of room so that it slides on and off of the card easily but not so much that it falls off.
8. Glue the ends of the belly band to one another.
9. To decorate the belly band, choose a sticker from the sticker sheet. Place it on a scrap of the red cardstock you used for the card base and fussy cut it leaving a small border around edge of the sticker.
10. Glue to the center front of the belly band.
Your card is finished…as simple as that. I do hope you have enjoyed this clean and simple card. Clean and simple cards are some of my favorites. It felt good to complete something and I’m really pleased with the results. So much so that I think I will go through this paper pack and make as many of these for my Christmas cards for family & friends. If you make a card like this one, we’d love to see it over on the Customer Gallery. Do you ever get creative block? If so, tell me in the comments what you do to get beyond that seemingly GIGANTIC wall!