Paper Seedlings: ROSY JINGLE BELLS

Today, I am featuring a very strangely colored Christmas card. Strange in that the main colors are Night of Navy (even though it doesn't look like that in my photos) and Melon Mambo. Weird, eh?

During the winter -- and before COVID -- when it was on the Clearance Rack, a few of my friends and I ordered the Everything Is Rosy bundle at about half the original price. A phenomenal bundle, filled with such awesome and elegant goodies, I made a handful of cards from it. You can see the cards I made in THIS POST.

After making those cards, I'd put all the components of the bundle into a container and set it aside. Frequently I come across it and consider making some more cards, but never actually do. The papers that came in the bundle are especially wonderful, and one of the papers is a rose gold colored metallic cardstock. It is so tempting and gorgeous, I am sorely reluctant to use it. So, it sits.

Recently, however, I came across it again, and since I'd ordered and received the jingle bell dies (Sounds of the Season, page 33 in the Mini Catalog), I was moved to cut a few of the bells from this precious paper.

A hint to share from experience: When you are die cutting from a shiny smooth metallic paper, cut the paper down to the size you actually need, rather than running a strip of it through the die cutting machine. If your plates resemble mine, they are very grooved, worn and loved. These grooves and textures transfer to the smooth surface of the paper. If you like that look -- and I happen to! -- great. But, if you want it to be the smooth surface, cut the piece to the proper size. You will be a lot happier!

After I die cut my bells, I loved them, but was unsure what to do with them. My eyes landed on the rest of the Everything Is Rosy components, and I thought, "Why not"? So I grabbed all the stuff in Night of Navy and Melon Mambo, and this is what I came up with:

I tried all sorts of ribbons, trims, baker's twines, etc., for the bows on the bells, but nothing seemed right. Until I noticed this thick baker's twine in Melon Mambo, and that turned out to be perfect.

My bells found a home upon a strip of the cardstock that came in the bundle, which also featured some of the same rose gold metal.

Picking up on the Night of Navy that was within the strip of DSP, I opted to have Night of Navy on the other side of my card. Putting it through the Old World Paper 3D embossing folder (page 185 in the Annual Catalog) gave it an awesome texture that worked well with the rest of the card.

A strip of the crinkled Melon Mambo ribbon that came in the bundle was stretched across the Night of Navy.

I now needed a sentiment. Being extra brave, I die cut "Holly Jolly" from another of the papers from the bundle. This was was Melon Mambo, but with an abundance of flowers in the same rose gold metal. Whoa. I really did feel courageous adding flowers to this card. Fortunately the letters were thin enough, you can't tell they are flowers; they just look like flecks of the rose gold.

A closeup of the words, as well as a little embellishment

I cut from the same rose gold with a die that came in the bundle.

And, a closeup of the jingle bells in all their weird colorful glory:

So, was I crazy to venture into such unfamiliar territory for a Christmas card? In real life, it is quite striking, which, of course, I failed to share with you because of my lousy photos.

I hope you enjoyed this little trek through weirdness. It was lots of fun -- for me, at least!