Poinsettia Card with Susan's Garden Notes Die

Hey everyone. A quick share today of one of my first Christmas card designs this year. I'm determined to start early and be ahead of the game this time around. In the past, I've waited until the last minute and cranked out a bunch of the same, identical card. Honestly, that might be efficient, but it's a bit boring from a creativity standpoint. This year, I'm going to make cards one by one, just as my heart desires for the design, and hopefully everyone on my card list will get a completely different card from me. That's the plan anyways.

My card today features the beautiful Poinsettia die from Susan's Garden Notes collection (Elizabeth Craft Designs), Carta Bella's pretty Christmas Wonderland papers, and a few stamps from Tim Holtz/ Stampers Anonymous.

My card is 5" x 7" and includes cardstock from Close To My Heart (Ruby and Gray Wool). Gray Wool is retired, but Slate would be a close second if you were recreating this card.

The Merry Christmas stamp is from the Stampers Anonymous "Old Fashioned Christmas" set and the pine boughs are from the "Mini Blueprints 7" set.

Carta Bella's Christmas Wonderland collection. I won this in one of their challenges!

And here's that fabulous die put into action. I absolutely LOVE this die, and I love how Susan has designed a whole new collection of dies that lie more flat when assembled. That line is called Garden Notes and each one is just as pretty as the next. 

Rather than create my own video (why reinvent the wheel?) I'm sharing Susan's video for this die assembly below. By the way, Susan has a YouTube video tutorial for every single die she designs. I LOVE that!

A simple inside for now. I might add more later.

That's it for me today. I think I'll set a goal for myself to make 25 different cards, starting next week and by December 14th, I'll be ready to mail them out.

How about you? Do you make your own Christmas cards? And if so, do you make them all the same or change them up? I'd love to hear. Meanwhile, have a great day!