New Year Cards that Sparkle and Shine!

Hi there!  It’s Mendi here today.  Can you guys believe it’s almost a new year?  Where did this year go?  If you’re like many of us, you may have run out of time when it came to making Christmas cards, but I’m hoping I can inspire you to send out New Year Cards instead!   To create my cards I turned to the classy Home+Made Collection by Jen Hadfield.

My first card uses all the soft and pretty gold and cream specialty papers and embellishments with the collection.  I punched a snowflake from the gold foil cardstock and layered it with a smaller snowflake in vellum to give it a softer feel.

For my next card I alternated 1-1/8″ wide strips on a 9″ x 3-3/4″ card base.  I then stitched down each side of the patterned paper and adhered gold foil alpha stickers for a sentiment with big impact.  To complete my sentiment I typed my words on the computer using a text box in Microsoft Word, layering it with some of the gold glitter scalloped tape from the collection.  My finishing touch was a pair of black buttons which I topped with gold sequins.

My last card has a holiday bokeh effect or exploding confetti look. I’ve included a little step-by-step photo tutorial below sharing how I created it.

I started by cutting a piece of black cardstock to fit the front of my card (5.5″ x 4.25″).  I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment using gold powder onto one of the chalkboard labels from the collection.   When I was done I lightly centered the label on my card front and traced around it with a pencil (and set it aside for later).

I then cut the gold foil cardstock into thin strips and punched it with a 1/4″ hole punch.  We R Memory Keepers Power Punch would be perfect for this.  It’s a pretty thick cardstock so you’re going to want a strong punch.

Next I started adhering the gold foil dots to cover the pencil line that I traced around my label, offsetting and spreading the dots out as I moved towards the edge of the card.  I found a glue pen to work best at this stage for minimal mess, but as I started to layer them in the next step, I had to switch to a liquid adhesive with a stronger hold.

When I had completely covered the front of my card, I cut off the dots that bled past the edge of the card front.

I adhered the label to the center and stitched around the edge for extra holding power.  The last step was to adhere the front panel to a notecard.  This card ended up being extremely flat and is perfect for mailing!

I hope I’ve inspired you to give one of these fun looks a try!  🙂

Supplies:
Home+Made 12×12 Paper Pad
Home+Made 12×12 Double-Sided Cardstock- Cool Quatrefoil
Home+Made 12×12 Double-Sided Cardstock- Cottage Blues
Home+Made 12×12 Specialty Cardstock- Cream with Gold Foil Dots
Home+Made 12×12 Specialty Cardstock- Cream with Glitter Stripe
Home+Made 12×12 Gold Foil Cardstock
Home+Made Chalkboard Label Stickers
Home+Made Phrase Tags
Home+Made Numbers & Glitter Decorative Tape
American Crafts Gold Glitter Paper Tape
Home+Made Gilded Gold Chipboard Thickers Alpha Stickers
Home+Made Large Gold Alpha Stickers
Sentiment Stamp Set