Merry Bell Shaker

Hello crafty friends, it’s June and I’m sharing a card that has quickly become one of my absolute favorite holiday cards I’ve ever made. Something about this Christmas Bell Shaker just makes me so happy so I can’t wait to share my process with you all.

I took the traditional route and cut my bell out of yellow cardstock, so it would look gold when doing some ink blending on it. I filled the shaker with Enchanted Shaker Beads and Holly Berries Clay Confetti.

I love how there are a variety of embellishments included with the Christmas Bell Shaker, so I used them to add more details to my bell. I cut 2 of each sprig from sage green cardstock and the bow from pink cardstock. I did some ink blending on those pieces as well, and also added gel pen details to the bow and the bell. I felt like it could use even more detail though, so I also used the snowflake from the Christmas Bucket Additions as a little embellishment.

Now here’s the favorite part of my card: the background! The new Argyle Pierced Plate and the Candy Cane Stripes Stencil are a match made in heaven! While the candy cane stripes look beautiful on their own, I’m a sucker for everything plaid, so I didn’t even think twice about creating a plaid background for my card. And when you add the nice stitching detail from the plate in the mix, it gives such a beautiful effect! I went for a pink-ish purple to add even more color variety. 

To make the bell stand out from the busy background, I cut an Eyelet Circle out of white cardstock. For the sentiment I wanted to use the new Large Merry Shadow Die and complete the sentiment with one of the Christmas Banner Greetings. I cut the ‘Merry’ from pink cardstock and backed it onto the shadow piece cut from vellum. I stamped one of the sentiments in pink ink onto pastel pink cardstock and cut it out using one of the banners from the Banner Greetings 1 set. I can see this set becoming my #1 most used die set for sure, I already used one of the banners on almost all of my cards I made using this release. Such a nice basic set that still adds a bit of interest to any card!

And that’s the finished card. I hope you’re enjoying seeing all the cards the design team has made so far, cause I am for sure! Christmas card prepping season is always such an inspiring time, don’t you think? Anyway, see you again soon with another blog post, bye!