The Nutcracker In The Window

Here comes the rat king!

Today is a special day as we celebrate Christmas in July.   Right now the StartStampz blog is hosting the Christmas In July Challenge.  Make anything Christmas themed for your craft using a cute holiday inspired image from StarStampz.  I found this beautiful little girl holding a Nutcracker and dancing on some presents.  I wanted to make it something special.  The idea of having a window opening up into the living room where you can see the Christmas tree and this young beauty dancing is what I had in mind for this craft.

Because of this i figured I would use traditional Christmas colors.  If you wish to join the challenge, then you can find the link to the right of this post.  Best of luck!

• The Nutcracker Holiday Digital Image
• Cricut
• Copic Markers
• We R ​Quill
• White Cardstock
• Red Cardstock (three shades)
• Green Cardstock (two shades)
• Brown Cardstock
• Brick Embossing Folder
• 5.5" x 5.5" Card Base
• 1/2" Double Sided Tape
• White Vellum
• Gold Foil

• Design Space Image:
  • Holly #M35969
  • Holly #M381A1
  • Banner# M458B3
  • Holly Border #M46D4B
  • Window: M5D690D7
  • Square
  • Circle
  • Font:  Cricut Sans
• Distress Dye:  Antique Linene, Mowed Lawn
• Liquid Glue
• 1/8" Double Sided Tape
• 1/4" Foam Tape

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Let the Christmas crafts begin. 

Hair:  Y00, Y08, YR23   
Eyes: B01, B05
Skin:  E000, E11, E13, E04, E95
Dress: R05, R46, R89
Slippers: C7
Tree:  YG61. YG63, YG67
Tree Decore:  Y08, Y17, R29, C6, E35
Window:  B66, E27
Gifts:  R14, YG17, B66, V90, Y15
​Nutcracker: C71, y15m E15, C6, B34, R14

Now that the coloring is done we can begin to work the card.  Die cut all of the images out in Cricut Design Space.  Once complete you will have a square cut out that will cover the front of your card base.  Begin by embossing the cards with a brick folder.  Will not be very noticeable at first, but you will add in some color by blending in Antique Linen Distress Ink over the raised impression.  Some parts a made darker than others on purpose to give it more of a brick feel.  This will be adhered using 1/2" double sided tape, right onto your card base. 

With the card base set aside, we are now ready to assemble the that was cut to fit to the window piece.  Adhere the image to the window using  a thin strip of liquid glue.   Make sure to ensure the image is centered.  Once set you will fold back the window panes along the crease.  

With the windows now folded back, it's time to add on the vellum.  Using 1/8" double sided tape along the window frames on the outside of the frame you will adhere the vellum cut out.  This par twill remain hidden, as you will see later on. 

Adhere the window piece to card base.  For this I used liquid glue.  I did not want to add too much height to this as it had plenty of detail.  Using 1/8" double sided tape, adhere the window frames down to the card base so that they remain open. 

I began preparing the holly bits since the items were small and I did not want them to get lost.  I used liquid glue to adhere the berries to the holly boarder.  I adhered the border to the lower window sill with liquid glue. 

For the second holly piece I adhere the berries to it using liquid glue and then adhered it to the top of the rounded window section. 

For my sentiment I decided on a simple Merry Christmas.  Although simple, It really stands out.  I used the We R Memory Keepers Foil Quill to make this.  It really made the sentiment stand out.  The banner comes in three layers, so I used a dark, medium and light red to layer so that it gave the banner depth without using height.  I adhered each layer together using liquid glue. 

With my banner ready, I used 1/4" foam tape to adhere it just over the window opening. The holly behind and the height really made the sentiment show off. 

Using Mowed Lawn Distress ink I added some color to the smallest of the holly leaves so that it stood out.  I adhered the berries to the bunch using liquid glue.  I adhered the holly to the lower left and upper right corners of the sentiment.

With all the items on the card, this is what it should look like once complete. 

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Thank you for visiting.  I hope that you take the time to visit the StarStampz blog and enter the challenge.  You have an opportunity to win a set of images from this amazing creator.  

Come back again!

XOXO - HeartcraftPaper