Tattered Lace Ornate Reindeer Christmas Cards

When I got my Sizzix Big Shot cutter two Christmases ago, I also received a beautiful tattered lace die called 'ornate reindeer'. I cut out several reindeer from sparkly cardstock almost right away, with a view to making cards for the following Christmas, but then that Christmas (last year) I made a few cards but think I forgot about these die cuts! So when I came across them earlier this year I made a few cards that I am now able to send out this year.

I've written before about using the die cutter and tattered lace dies. This one was particularly fiddly in places so my poking tool came in handy!

What I hadn't realised initially was the size of these dies - they take up most of the size of a standard 6x4 card blank, not leaving much room for other embellishments.

 

I did try out some different things though I'm not sure which of these works best and I don't feel like I'm really doing justice to the tattered lace die cuts. If you have this die and some good ideas for how to use it, please let me know!

For these first two cards I used large gold card blanks so I wouldn't need any other background. For one card I cut a gold oval with scalloped edges using another die, and mounted the reindeer on it - the reindeer is cut from sparkly red card. I added the words 'winter joy' which are from another die - I think it's actually a die of Christmas baubles with the words in the middle.

For the card on the right, I cut the reindeer from sparkly black card and mounted it using the smallest adhesive pads I could find which I even cut in half but you can still see them behind the reindeer. The ornate shapes around the edges are offcuts from die cutting - as this was so long ago I can't remember if they were the bits that came out from the spaces in between the antlers or from another die altogether. I used a 'merry Christmas' gold outline sticker to finish the card.

Here I covered the card blank on the left with two pieces of printed paper in complementary light blue colours - you can't see too well but I think they both have a snowflake design. I cut the reindeer from sparkly gold card and stuck it on the top half of the card, and a wooden gold card topper saying 'joy' - from a pack from The Works - on the bottom.

For the second card, I turned a gold card blank sideways and put two reindeers facing each other - one made from sparkly bronze card, the other from sparkly gold, with a 'merry Christmas' outline sticker in the middle and two little gold stars in the corners.

Finally I made a CAS (clean and simple) reindeer card using a green card blank and a reindeer die cut from gold card (non-sparkly this time) and a 'merry Chrismas' out line sticker.

I found the last of these in particular quite masculine so am linking up with the Cardz 4 Guyz challenge where the theme this week is reindeer.

Another Tattered Lace Pink Shoe Card

I've made other cards with this Tattered Lace shoe die but I particularly like this one because of the background I put it on. It was a free printable featuring pink shoes which I used to cover a white square card blank. I used my Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine and the Tattered Lace high heel shoe die to cut out a delicate stiletto from pink card, which I stuck onto a square of pink paper and mounted that on the card. I used a silver 'happy birthday' outline sticker along the top, and to make it stand out put a purple border sticker underneath.

Tattered Lace Pink Shoe Card

This is a very girly card for someone who likes shoes and someone who likes pink! The simplicity of the design works because each element is actually very detailed. The shoe is a die-cut I made using a Tattered Lace die and my Sizzix Big Shot die cutter machine.

I mounted the shoe on another Tattered Lace die-cut, though I bought a selection of these already cut out from Ebay, which is always a good option if you don't want to invest in buying several dies. I stuck that onto a square white card blank and added a 'birthday wishes' sentiment which matched the colour scheme.

Tattered Lace Especially for You Pink Sparkle Card

Among the Tattered Lace dies that I received for Christmas (and then bought a few more of in the January sale) was this beautiful ‘especially for you’ die. It’s very pretty but what I didn’t realise is that it’s quite large; if you use it on a small card (this one is 6x6) there isn’t room for much else. But I didn’t just want to use the die cut on its own.

My Sizzix die cutter

I made the ‘especially for you’ die cut in pink, and realised it wouldn’t stand out on a pink card so used a cream coloured one instead. I had an off cut from a border which I stuck on the right hand side of the card, and used another die in my machine to cut out the shape of a butterfly, which I overlapped over the bottom of the ‘especially for you’ die.

It still looked quite one-dimensional so I decided to add some sparkle with tiny pink gems, which I dotted about the die cut and on the butterfly. Finally I added a little pink bow in the bottom right corner.

This is quite a girly card and I think one that my friend’s 7-year old daughter might appreciate more than the adults!

Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutter and Tattered Lace Birthday Card

I got the Sizzix Big Shot Plus machine for Christmas – which I imagine a good proportion of you have never heard of. It’s a die cutting machine – still none the wiser?

OK, I like to do papercrafts, in particular card making (when I can find the time which isn’t often). As well as using items like stickers, ribbons and so on, you can cut out your own shapes or buy ready made pieces of card – known as die cuts.

For a while now I’ve been buying packs of die cuts on Ebay, generally sold by people who have die cutting machines. I thought it would be nice to be able to cut out my own dies – it will only become more cost efficient when I’ve done an awful lot but I couldn’t particularly think of anything else I wanted for Christmas so it seemed a good a gift as any!

The way the machines work is quite straight forward – you put in the metal die (like a template) and some card and it cuts out the shape for you. You can get two types of machines – manual and electronic. The manual ones require you to turn a handle to move the die and card through the machine but it’s not difficult. The electronic ones do it at a push of a button, but they generally cost more and it didn’t seem worth the extra outlay. You can get machines which connect to your computer and allow you to design your own shapes then cut them out, which sounds pretty cool, but the last time I did what was known as computer-aided design (CAD) was in year 9 at school and I’m not actually that artistic so again I didn’t think this was worth the extra money.

The machine I got for Christmas was the Sizzix Big Shot; Hobbycraft were selling it with a free starter pack including some of the basic kit you need that doesn’t always come with the machine (like adapters and cutting pads) but also some dies so I could get started right away. My fiancé also bought me a few of the Tattered Lace dies which I think are absolutely beautiful – they are quite expensive but very intricate patterns and designs that look great on cards.

To begin I just practised using all the dies, cutting out various shapes from different coloured card. I found the ‘pokey tool’ (it’s actual name) very helpful with the Tattered Lace dies in particular – there are such tiny pieces that don’t always come off in one go when you peel the card away from the die, and you need to poke them through.

I realised that I needed to send a birthday card to a friend and didn’t have anything so used some of the die cuts I’d just made, without spending too much time thinking about design, but the quality of the die cuts means even that looks good (though I intend to spend more time next time thinking about the design!).