Spellbinders ~ Lisa Horton Nested Tree Frame Die Set

Hey crafty friends, I have a sweet Christmas creation to share with you today. It's part of the Spellbinders September Release, Essential Holiday Collection by Lisa Horton. This is such a lovely set of frame dies and the sweet fir tree is a lovely addition to this set. In true Spellbinders style, all the dies are etched with little details that help when piecing elements together. I've never had a Spellbinders die not cut perfectly, they really do produce wonderful dies.

I started this design by dry embossing the lovely Blue Spruce cardstock from Spellbinders. It was still in stock in the UK when I made this card, but has sadly been retired now. I really love the colour of this cardstock and I've used it many times in the past couple of years. So it was lovely to pull it out for this creation. I used the lovely Forevergreen Embossing folder and lightly spritzed the cardstock before embossing it, to get a deeper impression and to stop the paper from cracking. I think the fir branches are perfect to ground this design. I edged the panel before adhering it to the white top folding card base with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to give some definition to the edges. I also did this with the green faux stitched layer.

I diecut the frame layers from the Lisa Horton Nested Tree Frame Etched Dies. I chose a gorgeous gold cardstock from the Make It Merry Mixed Cardstock Set and then cut the largest of the faux stitched frames from the set in Blue Spruce Cardstock again and then the next frame in watercolour paper. I ink blended the watercolour paper with some Rustic Wilderness at the very centre, then some Mowed Lawn and finally widened the blend with some Bundled Sage. I just wanted to add a hint of colour and interest behind the tree.

I put the tree together building up the layers with additional foam with each layer I added until the little star, which I needed to add several foam stars behind to match up the layers of the tree.  

The little star I wanted to feature and shine, so I diecut it from a Simon Says Stamp Gold Sheet of Luxe Glitter Cardstock. It has large pixelated glitter and it's gorgeous! But to meet the height of the rest of the tree which had layered quite high with each layer towards the top. I needed to add dimension behind it and I knew the foam I'd used to layer the tree would show obviously behind that dinky star, so I pulled out my Pop Up Die-Cutting Foam from Spellbinders to find a better option.

I cut the layers for the star with the same star die from the set and chose a foam with a toning hue from the Spellbinders Warm Tone Pop Up Die-Cutting Foam Pack. I had two colours I 'auditioned', but chose the paler of the two so it disappears behind the star and I'm so very happy with how it turned out. Trickiest bit was getting the stack to stand straight while the glue between each layer dried! 

I used Rock Candy Glitter to add the snowy details on the tree. The tree comes with options of how to embellish it, either tree garlands or these snowdrift pieces. Below you can see the snowdrift diecuts covered in glitter before I added them to the tree. I used Distress Collage Medium to adhere the Rock Candy Glitter and I think those layers came out so nicely. 

The next detail was the sentiment. It would have stamped better on a smooth cardstock, but I wanted to match the colour of the watercolour paper I'd used for the main panel. I did stamp the sentiment a couple of times to get a better impression. A note I made to myself for later makes, that smoother cardstock is better for sentiment strips.

I gold embossed the Merry Christmas sentiment from the Season of Wonder Sentiments Clear Stamp Set which is from the Season of Wonder Collection by Stampendous. This set has such beautiful Christmas sentiments and there is another set called Christmas Blessings from the same collection which has equally lovely Christmas themed sentiments. I have been enjoying using both of these this past month. I cut the sentiment with a fishtail tag die, which I just flipped to get the fishtail both ends of the sentiment strip. This is from the Essential Tags Etched Dies Set by Lisa Horton. Which was a nice pairing with the main set I'd used for this make. 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this make and would love to know what you think of this lovely set. I think it's such a great option for elegant Christmas cards. Spellbinders has just begun a wonderful promotion focusing on their Spooky Collections. Well worth a look if you love Halloween as I do!

You can click through on the banner above for a direct link to the sale. You can easily click through to the UK store from there if you're shopping in the UK. These links cost you no extra whatsoever and I so appreciate you using these links if you are shopping. Hugs, Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, which gives me a tiny commission but costs you no extra whatsoever. It helps the companies I design for to improve their marketing practice and track my contributions. I am deeply grateful if you use them for these reasons. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

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