*SnS Slimsational Cards Blog Hop*

 Happy New Year, Craft Friends!!!  I hope you have had a wonderful holiday season, despite restrictions and whatever else might be going on in your part of the world.  2021 will start the same as 2020 left off, but I think we are all hopeful for how the year will play out.  

All I know for sure is that I plan on being crafty!  Maybe not as much as in 2020, but as much as I can!  I look forward to going to crops again, crafting with friends... I've really missed that.  Zoom craft days are OK but never quite the same as being in the same room.

It is the first Friday of the month so the gals from the Scrap 'n Stamp Design Team are here with our first Blog Hop of 2021!  We have all been playing with the Slimline Die System from Picket Fence Studios.  I have made slimline cards in the past, I'm talking many years ago, but they aren't always my favourite to create.  The idea of them has taken off in the last several months and many of the big companies have come out with products that make the process (and measurements) a little easier.  I will definitely try to make some more now that I have this great die set!

Please be sure to leave a comment on each stop on the hop (listed below) for your chance to win your own Picket Fence Slimline Die Cutting System from Scrap 'n Stamp Canada!!!  In addition, place an order to celebrate the new year and use the code "finally 2021" for 21% off your regularly priced items!!

I paired this die set with some stamps and dies by My Favorite Things... and came up with this card....

A few steps as to how I created this card using the products I have on hand...  I started with a top folding card that was cut to 8.5"X 7" and scored it at 3.5".  This size of card is the standard for slimline I think... and fits easily in a business envelope.  I then used the one die in the set to cut a piece of grey cardstock as a layer on the front.  I was worried that I might need the longer plates for my Big Shot but I didn't.  It just barely fit.  Next time I'd probably use some purple tape and secure the die to the cardstock and cut it twice, flipping the piece around to start the second pass where the first pass ended, just to ensure I got a clean cut (I had to do a little surgery with a craft knife and ruler).  

I then chose two different panel pieces and taped the middle circle and one of the squares to the grey piece and ran it through my Big Shot.  I placed the square piece on the other side of the card and cut it out.  I cut three white squares that were slightly bigger than the window openings and ran them through my Big Shot with a snowfall embossing folder.  I stamped up some gorgeous snowmen in Gina K Amalgam ink and coloured them simply with my Copics (I'm not good at shading but I still like how the Copics leave a nice coloured image without lines).  I cut them out with the matching dies.  I also stamped the greeting from another stamp set on a strip of white cardstock and used my Layers Guide to give it a boarder of red.  

Now it's time to assemble the card.  I started with the embossed pieces... I placed the grey panel on the card front and used a pencil to mark where the holes would be, removed the grey panel and then adhered the embossed panels to the front of the card.  I then took my greeting and adhered it to the back of the grey panel, trimming off the edges as needed to have it fit.  I then took a LOT of foam tape and went around the edges of the grey panel, around the circle in the centre and a bit on the trees.  I added a little glue to all of the foam tape so that I had a little "play time" before it was all stuck down.  Once I had it in place, I pressed it all down to make sure it was well adhered.  Finally, I took my snowmen and tucked them into the panels, behind trees where I could.  They are adhered with just glue on the embossed panels.

This card is way more involved than most cards I create...  but I really do love how it turned out!  While these products from Picket Fence helped create the slimline card, I know that there are many products in my studio that I could have used.  But let me tell you... I love that this die set took all the guess work out of making the card.  I didn't have to figure out the perfect sized squares and circles!

Please be sure to head over to see what the rest of the design team has created!  Leave a comment on each blog post in the hop for your chance to win that awesome prize from Scrap 'n Stamp Canada!

Tara

Nancy <-- you are here!

Deborah

Kia

Chala

Susan