Grace Notes
Showing posts with label Inspirational. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspirational. Show all posts
November 26, 2019
Double-Flip Nativity Card
Christ the Saviour is Born
I designed this card to tell the story of Christmas. Shepherds in the fields, amazed by the large star over the stable where Baby Jesus rests in the manger.
Card Front
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| Christ the Saviour is Born ~ Card Front |
The Nativity panel is doubled to display when card is closed and open.
Card Inside
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O Come, Let Us Adore Him ~ inside panels |
Details
Card size: 12"w x 5-1/2"h
Closed card is 4" w x 5-1/2"h
All panels created in Cricut Design Space. Bottom banner spans the entire card; designed in Word.
Front panel: The words 'Christ' and 'Saviour' are cut twice from white and once from gold foil cardstock. Inside, the large gold star was made the same way.
Fonts used: Cricut Sans and Botanicals
Shepherds from: Dimensional Scenes - Nativity
Nativity panel: December 25th, Teresa Collins
"Christ" and "Saviour" from Every Day is a Holiday
December 18, 2011
Angels Touch Their Harps
Shining Angel and Golden Harp
One of the loveliest Christmas carols is, "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear". This card depicts that scene, "from angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold".
The white card base is 5"x7". The musical excerpt is scanned from an old hymnal, then edited in PhotoShop to remove all the other verses. I needed to pair down the music to keep it neat. At this size, I was able to print 4 per page with room to spare.
The sky background is from a sheet I've had for awhile. Sadly, I can't find more of it anywhere. Other sky backgrounds just are not as realistic as this one. On with the card.
As usual, we learn as we work through these things. For my first card, I placed the music over my gold "mat". Then I thought, in order to save expensive cardstock it would be smarter to cut a frame to place over the music, AND it would look more like a real frame.
Here's what worked best: On the Gypsy, I designed a frame and placed the harp inside. Voila! Two images for the price of one, literally!
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| Angel close-up |
For the angel's wings and dress, I cut one on blackout for the backing. The lacy fronts, though pretty, needed something a little extra. Heavenly star glow! (In crafting terms that would be glitter.) Isn't she beautiful!
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| Copyright 2011 Grace Baxter |
All of the card printing was done before assembling the rest. I prepared the card inside on my computer, printing all the words from "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear" on the left panel. The verse on the right side is a poem I composed especially for this card. I love it when God gives me wonderful poems that more fully express the story behind the cards.
I'm looking forward to a Christmas Eve service where, hopefully, we will all be singing some of those wonderful old Christmas carols.
November 03, 2011
DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE?
Not Just for Shepherds
The Sentiment, "Do You See What I See" is quoted from the Christmas carol by the same title. When I noticed that these polar bears were gazing upward, it gave me the idea to have them looking up into the heavens on the night that bright star appeared. The light from it was like no other star in the sky. And on that silent night, angels could be heard singing. Perhaps these bears heard the beautiful sound. It's for certain they saw the star, for how could they not!
Card Details
The white card base has several layers overlain. The first is the night sky, cut from navy glittered felt. To that, I added hand-cut layers of snow drifts. The front layer is glittered white. All layers are pop-dotted for dimension. The bears are cut at 3" and 2.5" cut from smooth cardstock.
I prepared the sentiment on my computer and sponged the edges with gold. The star and sentiment mat are the same yellow. I added some shine to the star with gold glitter paint.
These bears seem to have their own personality. I love their expressions and their cheerful red scarves.
~Grace
November 01, 2011
That One Gift
Christmas Chapel
O Come, All Ye Faithful
October 26, 2011
I loved making this card. I imagined music coming from this country church as townsfolk joyously greeted one another and began singing those old, familiar Christmas carols. In fact, I can picture exactly what the inside looks like.
A center aisle with rows of wooden pews on each side and at the front a platform that has a piano on one side, and a real Christmas tree on the left, all decorated. There are candles on the window sills of each window and wreathes hung over the windows. How do I know all this? I have sung in many such churches over the years; most of them are white but every bit as charming.
The card base is white, with a black mat on top and then the bright Christmas green as a frame. For the snowy background, I used snowflake vellum over white cardstock. Then I created mounds of snow from swirly white and added blue to the edges for definition.
The evergreen trees and rooftop are laden with thick snow. To the cutout windows I added a sheer golden vellum which makes the church come alive. (The windows glow in the picture below.)
And what could be more welcoming on Christmas Sunday than a giant wreath hung on the church front? I prepared the sentiment on my computer, then punched the banner ends with MS lace punch.
Inside:
I created the verse on my computer and printed it on cardstock. and punched the corners to make it lacy. Before gluing it down, I embossed the green mat with rows of holly branches.
Cartridges Used:
Sweethearts - church
Winter Woodland - trees
December 14, 2010
That One Gift - Poem by Grace Baxter
November 23, 2010
NOEL - A Wintery Scene
Here is another elegant card, suitable for a man but also pretty enough to give a woman. My first Noel card features a shiny deer, icy snowflakes and a sparkly sentiment.
The snowflakes are combinations of various snowflakes from Winter Woodland and Joys of the Season, layered.
Note about Snowflakes:
Snowflakes should always have 6 points. For this reason I had to eliminate some of the snowflakes on the JOTS cartridge. A flower may have 5 points or petals, but not a snowflake.
Card size is 5"x5".
Snowflakes on the front are cut at various sizes, the largest being 2-3/4". Since I used the Personal sized Cricut which can only cut at half-inch intervals, I may have used the shadow feature to make them a bit larger than 2-1/2". Make sense?
For the glitter, I used a combination of MS white glitter and crystal glitter paint from DecoArt. Because of the embossed background, all the cuts are popped with dimensionals.
The deer is size 2-1/2 cut from a heavy card stock that looks like brushed nickel. I shadowed him in black. I used thick dimensionals for the deer so he would sit higher than the popped snowflakes. Layering the elements in this fashion gives greater dimension.
Inside Card
I composed the verse in Word and printed it on white CS, then matted it on the same burgundy CS as the front.
I cut snowflakes at smaller sizes, frosted them with glitter and created a mini replica of the front for the inside top panel.
The "NOEL" sentiment on the card front was done with purchased sparkly letters.
There you have it... my first Noel card. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.
December 18, 2009
JOY To You At Christmas
Christmas & Music
Christmas and music just naturally go together. This is probably my favourite Christmas Card. A lot went into it as you will notice. The recipient was my very musical daughter so I used an actual excerpt of the music from "Joy To The World".
The large alphabet letters are from the Alphalicious cartridge. For the "O" I created a wreath from punched, overlapped branches. I also used a lot of gold gilding on the edges and lightly sponged over the music.
Inside
I created the verse on my computer, then gilded the edges with gold and added some punched evergreen branches.
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