Sooner rather than Later: SSS Handmade Holiday First Night

Tuesday, November 23, 2021

SSS Handmade Holiday First Night

*This post contains affiliate links to Simon Says Stamp

I absolutely love the First Night die that is part of Simon's Handmade Holiday release.

These cards were a two-fer. I was able to mix and match the negative and positive cuts to create two cards, which is just what you need when you're a little low on Christmas cards.

I started by inking up a panel of cardstock with Distress inks. I used a combination of Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, Dusty Concord, and Black Soot for the sky, and then added a bit of Antique Linen and Mustard seed for the bottom areas.

The panel was then die cut as was a piece of white cardstock.

This die is one where the negative pieces come out, but then the die cut portion is part of the panel that you die cut. It's great for making shakers or simply popping the panel up, but I wanted to create a discrete circle piece. So, using a circle die slightly larger than the First Night die, I die cut around the images creating a thin frame.

I then die cut two additional plain circles, adding adhesive to them to use as the base of my inlaid die cut piece.

Then, the frame piece was added, and all the negative pieces were inlaid. I also die cut the First Night die from Matte Gold cardstock for the stars and added them to complete the piece.

The finished nativity die cut piece was popped up over a panel of navy cardstock with a gold embossed sentiment from a retired Neat & Tangled set. I also added two strips of Matte Gold cardstock along the navy panel to complete the look.

For my second card, the technique was the same, except this time the positive image was from the die cut inked panel, and the negative pieces were from the white die cut. I again used Gold Matte cardstock for the stars, and this time popped the finished die cut piece up over a panel of striped patterned paper. The sentiment is from a Hello Bluebird set.