jingle belles are *BUZZING*!

hi and welcome to my post for JINGLE BELLES card #16, in which we're having fun with diecuts! these include the store-bought chipboard or cardstock variety, as well as custom ones you make using a cuttlebug, cricut, silhoutte or other machine.

this week, we've teamed up with the lovely and creative honeybees over at betty bee's buzz, where i was most honored to be featured guest in their regular monday motivational spot. on wednesday we'll see cards by the other designers in the honeybee showcase, and finally rounding out the week, you're invited to post about ANYTHING fun or positive you'd like to share for buzz, brag and bee happy friday!

so first, here's my card:

(patterned paper: basic grey, tim holtz, paper company + vintage sheet music; diecut circle sticker: creative imaginations; diecut sentiment: fancy pants; diecut border & butterflies: k&co; rose & border punch: recollections; pearls: kaiser; christmas tree die: sizzix; fabric: from the quilt shop; inks: ranger; adhesives: xyron, tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, gluedots; other: sewing machine, plain white cardstock)

you can see i've used a number of store-bought diecut elements in this not-very-traditional holiday card, many of which are not even officially "christmassy"! but my very favorite thing is the diecut pink paisley fabric tree! this was my first attempt at diecutting fabric, and it turned out to be totally straightforward, but i did discover a few tips for optimum results!

1. back your fabric with cardstock

i had no trouble cutting the fabric on its own, and can forsee using diecuts made of fabric in a sewing context, but for a card i found it easier to use a sturdier piece. i ran plain index stock through my xyron, laid it adhesive-side up on the counter, and placed my squares of cotton quilting fabric on top, smoothing and burnishing them to get a nice adhesive grip.

2. chop stiffened fabric squares to size

i started my fabric experiments with sizzix, thinking i'd need the weight and heft of the steel-rule dies; in fact i found that backed and un-backed fabric cut perfectly well with nesties, too. but in this case the tree was sizzix so i used it!

3. cut as usual

in a cuttlebug, you use two B plates on top of the A, place the die face up on top, and the cardstock-backed fabric square above that. i tried it with the fabric side facing up and facing down and it worked perfectly, but if you're making a few trees for the same card, it's nice to vary them.

4. adhere to card

in this case i cut an extra tree from white glitter paper to use as a sort of "drop shadow" to make my fabric tree stand out even more. i inked the edges of both, bonded them with gluedots and used dryline adhesive to attach the entire thing to my card.

bonus (unpictured) step:

go back and trim up the tree-shaped "frame" left where the diecut was taken out, and make ANOTHER card with that fun piece!!!

(stay tuned for that one, i think i have a few ideas!) :)

many thanks to betty brett, june houck, and all the honeybees at betty bee's buzz for teaming up with us at JINGLE BELLES this week, and i hope you will all check out their super-fun and highly inspiring site!!! ♥