Author name: Tara

Happy Tuesday!  I’m not sure when they decided it was officially “time” but I heard Christmas music on one of our local radio stations this past week, and store shelves are currently overflowing with Christmas decorations.  It’s far from wintery outside here, but it’s a wonderful time of year to be creating Christmas cards 🙂  Today I have one that is great for using up smaller die cuts and embellishments you have, or for doing a bit of prep work and taking time (maybe while you watch a Christmas movie!) to create a bunch of little paper blocks that can be assembled onto cards later.  My blocks are 1.75″ square, but you could save yourself some time if you have a square punch in a size close to that.

I’ve used die cuts by Sizzix/Tim Holtz- these minis are probably some of my most used dies this time of year!  I love the steel dies for cutting heavier & textured materials, like chipboard and burlap covered cardstock.  Perhaps you’ve noticed that kraft is my favourite neutral to work with, and this card I pulled it out for every block on my card, keeping things pretty neutral overall but with little bits of red & some sparkle to brighten it up.

A ticket embellishment by Tim Holtz, some red bakers twine and some red bling, along with red embossing powder for my sentiment, bring the color to this card.  The olive green squares also add color, but are a step away from traditional red & green.

Corrugated cardboard is always a fun way to add texture, and these tiny snowflake buttons add some elegance.  I can’t decide which block is my fave… but I’m looking forward to creating some more and seeing where they end up!

Have you started your Christmas cards yet?  Dig into your supplies and see what you can create on tiny blocks to turn into fun patchwork cards.  I’d love to see a link to your creation in the comments!

Inky hugs,

Tara