The Holiday Season is in full swing around here! Over the weekend I was a blitzing the to do list; writing cards, wrapping presents and decorating until the slightly panicky feelings of being unprepared subsided. I’ve still a way to go but a little more confident that I will get to the end of my to do list! Next on the agenda is a gift card envelope. Every year we meet up with close friends on Christmas Eve; eat a lot, drink a little and sing a lot! Santa even used to make an appearance when the children were little – when we all sang carols at the top of our voices we’d see him run through the garden with his sack and that was the indicator that it was time to head home and get everyone to sleep :D The children aren’t little anymore however, and one of our friend’s daughters is saving up to go to a concert with her boyfriend. Seriously when did time fly by so fast?! So a gift card/money envelope is in order today.

Gift card envelopes are a great way to use up the patterned paper mountain that often threatens to topple over! Today I used an older but still beautiful paper pad; Basic Grey Aspen Frost. The base of the envelope is a piece of Bazzill white card 7 ¼” x 5 ½”, scored at 2 ⅛” and 5″ along the long side and folded to create the envelope. The sides of the envelope are adhered with a thin line of scor-tape.  The patterned paper pieces are cut with the largest of the Stitched Rectangles dies from Simon Says Stamp. The green paper one is firstly adhered to the base of the envelope (under the flap) and wrapped around the back. Then the blue paper piece is adhered to the flap and over the top, onto the back. This way the flap and base are both covered and when flipped over the back of the envelope is also covered with the two die cut rectangles overlapping.

The Stitched Slopes and Hills dies make the perfect snowy bank and I ran it through my die cutter again with the Stitched Rectangle so that the stitching matched up with the blue paper. Before adhering I added the house and trees from the Village dies cut from Neenah solar white, lightly coloured with Copics and decorated with a touch of Star Dust Stickles. The Christmas word is die cut from white card using the Christmas Blessings die. The die cut has a natural curve to it and when adhering I encouraged the die cut to match the shape of the snow bank. Finally a twine bow keeps the envelope flap closed.

That’s another tick for the to do list! If you celebrate, how are you holiday preparations going?

Supplies

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Dies – Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangle, stitched slopes and hills, village, christmas blessings; Card – Bazzill white, Neenah solar white 80lb; Paper – Basic Grey aspen frost 6×6; Copics – E51 E53 E57 E59 YG95 YG99; Ranger Star Dust Stickles; Twine