Trim a Tree with Christmas Cheer

As many of you know, I really like making cards with Stampin' Up!'s Simply Scrappin' Kits -- and have been designing various 30 and 60 card classes with these kits for about 3 years now!  Anyway, when I ordered the Christmas Cheer set several months ago, and started working with it to design this year's 30 Christmas cards class, I had an idea to use the number pieces that come as part of the self-adhesive die cuts to create an advent calendar.  My friend Jana suggested the numbers might work well with the new Petal Card Punch, and I thought that was brilliant.  One thing led to another, and here's what I finally created -- a 5.5 x 7" card with a pop-up Christmas tree, which can be decorated each day of advent with an ornament hidden in one of the numbered pockets.  The reason for the somewhat strange size is that it fits perfectly inside one of the Sweet Treat Padded Envelopes.  So, this super-interactive card could be mailed to someone special!

Here's the outside of the card:

This is a Cherry Cobbler base, with a Very Vanilla strip of card stock along the side, and self-adhesive die cut strips and "celebrate" from the Christmas Cheer Simply Scrappin' Kit. 

When you open the card, here's what's inside:

The tree was created using the O Christmas Tree Pop Up for the Big Shot to die cut pieces of Always Artichoke card stock from the Simply Scrappin' Kit.  The gold star on top of the tree was created by cutting Brushed Gold card stock using the Tree Decorations Sizzlit for the Big Shot (which coordinates perfectly with the O Christmas Tree Pop Up Die). 

The designer paper under the tree is one of the patterns included in the Scrappin' Kit as well.  And, I created a tree skirt from Very Vanilla card stock, punched out with the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch.

In the photo above, if you look carefully, you can see the tree has already been decorated with some ornaments, but here's what the tree looks like plain:

The little dots on the branches are pieces of clear velcro, which I punched out using the Crop-o-dile to get just the right size to hold the little ornaments.  There's a coordinating piece of velcro on the back of each ornament.  

Here's a close up of one of the ornaments inside its petal-punch envelope:

The envelopes were all punched out of Marina Mist card stock from the Scrappin' Kit.  I used small velcro dots to keep the envelopes closed, but still easy to open on the proper day (and to make this a reusable advent calendar).  Each of the self-adhesive numbers from the kit was attached to a circle of Very Vanilla that I punched using the 1 1/4" Circle Punch.  That in turn was attached to one flap of the envelope.

I topped each of the little envelopes with a Marina Mist 1/8" Taffeta bow. 

The "ornaments" for my tree are flowers and hearts that I punched out using the Boho Blossoms and Trio Hearts punches with scraps of designer paper and card stock from the Simply Scrappin' Kit.  I used Basic Pearl Jewels in the center of the flowers to dress them up!  Here's a close up of some of the ornaments on the tree:

You can also catch a glimpse in this photo that I couldn't resist spritzing the tree with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz.  Love that stuff!!!

If you make an advent calendar of your own like this, you could choose to use the Tree Decorations sizzlit to create your ornaments -- or dress your tree up with Stampin' Up!'s beautiful buttons or tinsel trim . . . . or so many other options!!!   Please let me know if you have any questions -- and if you do make one, I would love to see your creation -- please be sure to email me or a leave a comment to this post! 

Thanks for stopping by!

- Michelle