Spellbinders ~ Holiday Express

Hey crafty pals, I'm back as promised with my next crafty adventure for Spellbinders. I was sent this lovely Holiday Express Train Die Set to work with from the Tinsel Time Collection and is a set of 10 thin metal cutting dies. I have to say, it makes a super cute Christmas card for little dudes. I'll be giving this to one of my nephews. 

I used a lovely Spellbinders cardstock I had in my stash to create the body and carriage of the train. It's called Blue Spruce and it's a gorgeous blue-green colour. This is good quality heavier cardstock perfect for diecutting from. I used a brushed silver cardstock from my stash to create the accents on the train and I cut the wheels from this too. I used a black cardstock with a lovely sheen to it to cut some of the other accents on the train. The little window, I cut from vellum which I had backed with white foam, then added 3 little diagonal lines in a glitter pen to suggest a shine on the window. All the train layers were added popped up on foam squares for a bit of dimension and interest.

I finished the Train Engine by adding the word 'Nice' diecut from gold iridescent cardstock and matted onto black using its accompanying shadow die. I wanted to suggest this is Santa's train with the pressies, not the coal! Hehe. I think this is a fun finish for this card and opted not to add any additional sentiment. It'll be a fun talking point with the little nieces and nephews at Christmas time. The panel I mounted the train onto, was white cardstock, which I edged with Scattered Straw Distress Oxide Ink and then splattered generously with a gold shimmer spritz. I mounted this panel onto foam for a bit of dimension. The sweet Christmas lights paper behind that panel was from my stash. This is from the Christmas Traditions Paper Pad which is part of the Christmas Traditions Collection. This is a 6 x 6 inch patterned paper pad with medium weight papers, great for layering. 

I also used that lovely paper pad to diecut a few of the gifts in the carriage. One using that same Christmas lights paper at the back of the carriage and another page with a sweet confetti style pattern for two of the gifts further forward. That rounded top gift, I used the train window to cut from the Blue Spruce cardstock and added a bit of interest by running it through a plaid embossing folder. The green gifts I cut from a toning slightly darker green cardstock I had in my off-cuts dish, but using the little dies that had texture built into them. One has a polkadot embossed finish and the other stripes, which shows nicely on plainer cardstock. The little gift with the very shiny red box lid I had cut when making the previous card I shared, for the little deer to hold. I had cut two for that card, one from plain white cardstock and the other with this patterned paper. I used the plain one for the first card and popped this spare pressie in the train carriage to make it look fuller. The bow on the rounded top box, I created from the offcut wedges from the wheels of the train. I really don't like to waste anything! Hehe. The card base I used was a lovely red textured 5x7 card I had in my stash, which I cut down to work as a slimline card. It made a nice base to this design. 

Thanks for popping in to visit today. I hope you enjoyed seeing my second creation with the latest Spellbinders range. If you missed my post yesterday and live in the UK, did you know that Spellbinders now has a designated UK store? You can click through on the banner below to visit their UK store, which makes things a little more accessible for you. 

I will be back tomorrow with another creation for this release, so pop back in when you can. I have several lovely creations to share from this release and I'm so excited to show you! If you like what you see, be sure to check out the fabulous 'Today's Deals' category on the Spellbinders' site, they've loads of lovely items included in this promotion and I have my heart set on quite a number of items now.

Thank you again for stopping in to visit today. I really hope you enjoyed this post and my new crafty adventure with Spellbinders and I wish you a wonderful day and happy crafting! Big hugs, Wends xoxo

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