When time is short but you still want that handmade touch, there are plenty of ways to create quick and easy Christmas cards.
You can use card kits, add ephemera pieces from specialty paper packs, or mass-produce one simple design. Today I have used another favourite method: a large sentiment stamp combined with stunning Designer Series Paper and a few sparkly embellishments.
With just a handful of products, you can make a whole stack of cards in one sitting!
Quick and Elegant Christmas Cards in Red and Gold
My colour combination is classic and simple: Real Red, Gold and white
I’ve used just a few favourite products to create these elegant designs:
The red and gold DSP pattern from the Season of Elegance 12″ x 12″ Specialty Designer Series Paper
Gold Foil
The large Merry Christmas Stamp, inked in Real Red Classic Stampin’ Pad
Traditional Sparkling Sequins in gold and red for a little extra sparkle
For this card the “Merry Christmas” sentiment was fussy cut to highlight the gorgeous scripted font of the sentiment.
While for this card I did not fussy cut the sentiment, instead layering it onto gold foil to for a clean, classic finish.
You could use this large “Merry Christmas” stamp with any Christmas DSP, varying the ink colour and embellishment to match the colours in the DSP.
Take a look at some more Christmas Card inspiration
Now it’s time to hop in over to our next participant, the lovely Kate Morgan. I can’t wait to see what Kate has made this week!
If the next button link is not working or you’d like to see the entire list of participants go to Sharon Davern‘s blog. Sharon does an amazing job of hosting our Heart of Christmas blog every Monday.
Our AWH team will be back on Wednesday night, showcasing Granny Apple Green on our Insta Hop. I hope you can join us then!
For week five of the 2025 Heart of Christmas blog hop I’ve made three more cards using products from the gorgeous gold foiled Traditions of Christmas Suite.
All three cards are a simple fancy fold created by cutting a sheet of A4 cardstock in half lengthways, trimming each piece of cardstock to 10.5 cm x 28cm. I scored and folded each card base at 14 cm and 21 cm.
The three different colours I’ve used for the cardstock bases all come from colours in the Traditions of Christmas Specialty DSP.
Card One – Real Red and Bubble Bath
I’ve used Bubble Bath cardstock to pick up the pink in the Traditions of Christmas Specialty DSP, die cut using the Christmas Greenery Dies, part of the Traditions of Christmas Suite Collection.
Here’s what the card looks like when opened up. I’ve used the Traditional Labels dies to stamp and die cut the sentiment. There is a white panel on the back of the card for writing a message.
Card Two – Pool Party and Secret Sea
Card two picks up the two blues in the flower bouquet and the all over floral pattern DSP. Just like the first card, I’ve used embellishments from the Traditional Sparkling Sequins.
Card Three – Old Olive and Real Red
As the Old Olive DSP on the right hand side of the card is “less busy” and the all over floral design on the first two cards, I’ve moved the bunch of flowers to the other side of this card.
For all three cards I’ve lined up the position of the front sentiment label to cover the inside sentiment label. Do you have a favourite colour/design?
Take a look at some more Christmas Card inspiration on our Heart of Christmas blog hop!
Now it’s time to hop in over to our next participant, the lovely Judy May. I can’t wait to see what Judy has made this week!
If the next button link is not working or you’d like to see the entire list of participants go to Sharon Davern‘s blog. Sharon does an amazing job of hosting our Heart of Christmas blog every Monday.
Our AWH team will be back on Wednesday night, showcasing Fresh Freesia on our Insta Hop. I hope you can join us then!
It’s week four of the 2025 Heart of Christmas blog hop and just over 13 weeks until Christmas. Have you started making your Christmas cards yet?
For this week’s card I wanted to create a card that highlighted the gorgeous variety of patterns in the Christmas Tags & More DSP while also making the sentiment as the star of the card.
The “strip technique” (I’m not sure of its official name, but this is what I call it!) is great for mass production of cards as it really maximises your DSP and is so quick and easy to create. I cut strips approximately 2 cm wide and lined them up across a panel of Basic White cardstock on a Real Red cardstock base.
The two strips on either end are pre-cut strips from the Christmas Tags & More DSP.
The word joy is stamped in Real Red using the Jolly Holly Bundle and cut out with the matching die.
To give the sentiment extra dimension, I used a blending brush to add Soft Sea Foam ink to a scrap of Basic White cardstock. I then flipped the cardstock over, traced around the joy die on the reverse side of the cardstock, and fussy cut it out by hand. This creates a soft backing layer that makes the word pop against the patterned background.
This backing layer makes the word “joy” pop against the patterned background. I also added a white heat embossed greeting “Wishing You & Yours” stamped onto Basic Black cardstock, layered onto a strip of Basic White cardstock for extra detail.
The holly and foliage were stamped in Memento Black Ink and coloured with Stampin’ Blends in Real Red and Soft Sea Foam Stampin’ Blends.
Since there isn’t a Stampin’ Blend in Garden Green, I used a Garden GreenWatercolour Pencil add some of the darker Christmas green. The leaves and berries were then cut with the coordinating Jolly Holly dies and arranged around the sentiment for balance.
Inside the card I’ve stamped another sentiment from the Jolly Holly stamp set and added two more holly leaves coloured in to match the holly on the front of the card.
To finish the card, I adhered a few red Traditional Sparkling Sequins, the perfect way to add a little shimmer and bling without overwhelming the design.
Take a look at some more Christmas Card inspiration on our Heart of Christmas blog hop!
Now it’s time to hop in over to our next participant, the lovely Sharon Davern. I can’t wait to see what Sharon has made this week!
If the next button link is not working or you’d like to see the entire list of participants go to Sharon Davern‘s blog. Sharon does an amazing job of hosting our Heart of Christmas blog every Monday.
Our AWH team will be back on Wednesday night, showcasing Flirty Flamingo on our Insta Hop. I hope you can join us then!
This week we’re showcasing Crushed Curry, a rich golden yellow from the Regals family, and I’ve used it with the amazing Scenic Adventure dies to create a sunrise Father’s Day card for my husband.
Although I usually gravitate towards more monochromatic colour palettes, for this card I took my inspiration from nature and used colours I would not normally pair together: Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Petunia Pop, Blackberry Bliss, Basic Black and Shaded Spruce.
The Scenic Adventure dies are part of a bundle with the Scenic Adventure stamp set, however on this card I’ve only used the Scenic Adventure dies, as well as a circle die from the Stylish Shapes dies to make the Crushed Curry sun. The only stamping is the sentiment.
Adding extra detail with hand embossing
To emphasise the Crushed Curry sun and add extra texture to this card I decided to add some hand embossing.
On a Basic White cardstock layer I stamped a sun in Crushed Curry using the semicircle stamp in the Sunshine Vibes stamp set and then I stamped the Sun rays in Crushed Curry all round the sun.
To add texture, I used the stylus from my Simply Scored Scoring Tool and a ruler to emboss lines that extend the sun rays. I then used a small blending brush and Crushed Curry Ink to add the glow of the sun in the sky as it rises above my mountain scene.
The white heat embossed “Father Day” sentiment is from the Trusty Tools stamp set, heat embossed onto Basic Black card stock.
I really love the vibrant, graphic quality this unusual colour combination gives to my sunrise scene and i hoipw my husband likes it too!
Take a look at some more Crushed Curry inspiration on our Insta Hop!
Our blog hop is now an Instagram hop but the good news is that you don’t need to have an Instagram account to view all of the other projects!
Simply copy any of the Insta handles below into a new search engine window to follow the Instagram hop at any point.
Next in our Hop is Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss . Be sure to check out her gorgeous project/s.
The full list of this week’s InstaHop is listed below:
Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss
Kate @craftwithkate
Helen @apaperparadise
Leanne @createwithleanne2
Sharon @sharondaverncreates
Andrea @andreaksargent
Vicki @vickiboucher
Cathy @whatcathymade
Cathy @whatcathymade – you are here!
We’ll be back next Wednesday when we are showcasing another yellow: Daffodil Delight!
Looking for some Christmas card inspiration?
Our Heart of Christmas blog hop is back for 2025 and we will go live at 8pm (EAST) every Monday night with Christmas card inspiration. This hop is a traditional blog hop (not an Instahop) so you can follow along by reading my blog.
This week we’re showcasing my favourite Stampin’ Up! colours–Crumb Cake–and I’m also taking the opportunity to showcase one of my favorite stamp sets (now on the last chance list): Humble Home.
This versatile stamp set has been massively reduced to $10.50, so if it’s not already in your collection, now’s the time to add it to your next order before it is gone!
I deliberately kept my colour combination neutral this week because as Crumb Cake is so versatile and it works with every single colour it often plays second fiddle to other colours. By pairing it back to just two colours (with a touch of gold) Crumb Cake really shines.
One Design – Two Cards
Just like my Coastal Cabana cards last week, I’ve used the one card sketch to create two different cards. Both cards use the stunning Nests of Winter DSP for the top panel of the card and one of the Spotlight on Nature dies has been used to die cut the circle behind the focal image.
This time I kept the layout and orientation the same, simply swapping out where I placed the Crumb Cake and the Basic White.
Card one has Basic White card base and I’ve heat embossed the focal home image and the sentiment in white onto Crumb Cake card stock.
The twine is the Crumb Cake twine from the The Baker’s Twine Essentials Pack and the white dots are from the Neutral Matte Dots.
Card two has a Crumb Cake card base and the sentiment and the focal home image are stamped in Crumb Cake.
The twine and embellishments are a sneak peek at new products from the September – December catalogue (Traditional Sparkling Sequins) and Online Exclusives (Black & White & Gold Bakers Twine), both available September 3.
Take a look at some more Crumb Cake inspiration on our Insta Hop!
Our blog hop is now an Instagram hop but the good news is that you don’t need to have an Instagram account to view all of the other projects!
Simply copy any of the Insta handles below into a new search window to follow the Instagram hop at any point.
Next in our Hop is Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss . Be sure to check out her gorgeous project/s.
The full list of this week’s InstaHop is listed below:
Kirsty @crafty.littlemiss
Andrea @andreaksargent
Kate @craftwithkate
Rosa @hum.and.stamp
Claire @clairedalycreates
Sharon @sharondaverncreates
Helen @apaperparadise
Vicki @vickiboucher
Leanne @createwithleanne2
Cathy @whatcathymade – you are here!
We’ll be back next Wednesday when we are showcasing Crushed Curry.
Want more Christmas card inspiration?
Starting Monday 1st September (that’s right, it’s next Monday night!) our Heart of Christmas blog hop will be returning for 2025. This hop is a traditional blog hop (not an Instahop) so you can follow along by reading my blog.
The blog hop will go live at 8pm (EAST) every Monday night for 16 weeks.
