A dozen from one!

While browsing for something quite different I happened to find a set of dies by a company that I wasn´t familiar with at all, and I ordered one. The company was Taylored Expressions, and the die was a simple nativity scene. I have cut several elements from the Nativity using my Silhouette Cameo, but sometimes a die is quicker and simpler. When this one came I was really pleased with it, partly because of its size. It is small enough to fit on a A6 landscape card, and that is a real plus for me with the International postage. I also liked it because it covers all the elements of the story - the stable scene, plus a shepherd, the kings, camels and a donkey, and even a couple of palm trees, and I do like to see the Nativity on Christmas cards.

So I cut it from some black card and my first thought was, "this is going to be quite limited in what I can do with it". A backing paper and a sentiment and that´s it. Then I had a sharp word with myself and thought "Use your imagination Kate"! So I cut it out twelve times and set myself the task of making twelve different cards.

The first two are fairly basic with just different papers and different stamps. (Both stamps are from sets by Hero Arts).

Then I started riffling through my Christmas snippets box, and found some patterned papers and oddments of mirricard. I combined these with frames either die-cut or resized ones from my Silhouette library, and put together the next four. Apart from the one on the lower right side, these are a little larger than A6 which gave me more scope with the frames.

Out here the envelopes are European sizes and the standard one is a little larger than A6. I find that if I cut  a base card to fit these, I get a much more useful size to work in. (I don´t like making big A5 cards unless they are for a very special occasion). The down side of that is , I can only cut one from each A4 sheet of card, but sometimes I buy pads of card from Lidls when they have an art and craft week, and I can cut two base cards from one sheet of their card.

For the next four cards I used some embossing folders for the backgrounds on two, and stamped behind one of the others. The last one I finished off with some peel-offs that are so old I am surprised they would still stick! I also added some ancient sticky ribbon and a few gems. The backing paper for the top left one is from a 6" x 6" pad from Crafty Individuals and I liked the way  I could work around the angel so she showed in just the right place on it.

That left me with two more die-cuts, and I suddenly had the idea of splitting them up. For this one I put each section onto  a tiny snippet of blue paper and framed them to match the base card. Then I found a contrasting piece of paper to go behind them.

I didn´t like the empty corner so I found some clear stamps that I made for a project some years ago. I went through a phase of making clear polymer stamps with light-sensitive sachets. They were a bit hit and miss, but these ones were quite successful and I used them a lot. But now they are dried out and had curled up. So I used a glue stick to keep them on an acrylic block and held my breath while I stamped them. And they worked! A bit wonky but they worked. Then I added my tiny Art Impressions Bethlehem stamp below the kings.

I did something similar with the last die-cut only this time I turned the base card round and used it landscape again. I used mid green card that used to be a folder cover. I liked the shade of green it was but had never found a use for it. It probably isn´t acid free so is not suitable for a scrapbook title which I originally wanted it for, but that doesn´t matter for a card which has a shorter life. I then struggled to find suitable snippets for the little pieces. So instead I used one offcut for the back layer (Which is a much prettier green than it looks in the photo!) and before I glued it on, I printed a sentiment block in the top corner. Then I used a craft knife to cut empty, very narrow frames from the left-over green card. I sized them so that the nativity elements would just fit in them, and again I stamped the little Bethlehem in the empty area. It was a little dull so I lifted it with some sparkly sticky ribbon.

I have shown this card on its own so that I can link it to Crafty Hazelnut´s Christmas Challenge which is to use green and/or recycle (the green folder).

I am also linking up with Pixie´s Snippets Playground. Week 151.

Thank you with those who have stuck with me to the end of this rather lengthy post. I hope I have inspired some of you to look again at your dies and see how many different ways you can use them.