Christmas Cards & Treat Bags For My Card Group Ladies

We had to get together today, a week early, for our December card group meeting.  We had a lovely, happy afternoon crafting, chatting, singing, exchanging cards and Secret Santa gifts.  Today I'm sharing the Christmas cards and mini treat bags I made for my ladies.  I made two of each design.

A little while ago I bought the SU! 'Trim Your Stocking' Thinlits dies set which can be used to make a stocking topped pillow box gift card holder.  I love the idea of cute, decorated Christmas stockings but I've got to admit I didn't enjoy trying to make a gift card holder!  Getting the rounded parts of the pillow box to fold neatly was impossible for me, I gave it a few attempts and wasn't at all happy with my results so I then admitted defeat.  I decided I'd be very happy to use the stocking elements on cards or as gift tags and just not bother with the gift card holder functionality of the die set!

The stocking is quite large so I made the card bases 5" x 7".  My colour combo is Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green and Whisper White and I've used different patterned papers from last year's SU! 'Warmth and Cheer' DSP stack.  I embossed the white background panel with a snowflakes embossing folder.  The sentiment was stamped in VersaMark ink and heat embossed with white embossing powder.  I punched a small circle in each stocking and added a ribbon loop.  I die cut the snowflakes twice, once in black CS and again in white CS and offset the two shapes to give a shadow effect.  I placed a clear faceted gem in the centre of each snowflake.  Each stocking is mounted to the card front using a wobble action spring so there's a fun movement element to the cards.

The treat bags were made using the SU! 'Mini Treat Bag' Thinlits die set.  I used the sweet gold library clips to attach a tag to each bag.  Each bag contains a clear Christmas stamp, an Options hot chocolate sachet and a Christmas lottery scratchcard.

Here's the back of the envelopes.

Here's the front of one Cherry Cobbler stocking card.

Here's the inside of one Cherry Cobbler stocking card.

Here's the front of one Garden Green stocking card.

Here's the inside of one Garden Green stocking card.

Here's one Cherry Cobbler treat bag.

Here's one Garden Green treat bag.

I'm happy how these turned out, quite festive and cheery I think!  They were a bit time consuming but I worked in an assembly line fashion and did each stage at a time.  I've been working on these for the past few weeks whenever I've had some crafting time and it was highly satisfying to see them all completed!

I'm having a break from card group in January so we'll be getting together again on Thursday 1st February - which seems a very long way away but I'm sure it will be here before I know it!

Supplies:
Stamps: Imaginisce 'Be Merry' Snag 'em stamp, Stampendous 'Snow Brackets'
CS: SU! Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Basic Black & Whisper White
Patterned paper: SU! 'Warmth & Cheer' DSP stack
Ink: SU! Cherry Cobbler & Garden Green, VersaMark
Tools: SU! 'Trim Your Stocking' & 'Mini Treat Bag' Thinlits die sets, MFT Die-namics Blueprints 18 die set, Leane Creatief 'Snowflakes Background' embossing folder, Tonic Studios 'Slab Merry Christmas' die set, Sizzix 'Banners' die set, heat tool
Embellishments & accessories: SU! white embossing powder, clear faceted gems, gold library clips, rhinestone jewels, Dimensionals, action wobble springs
Ruth