The One with the Spellbinders Slimline Holiday Collection

Hello everyone.
Today I'm here to show off some projects that I made using the Spellbinders Slimline Holiday Collection. I’ve made three different slimline cards using this collection. let me show you some things that I hope will inspire you to get into the Christmas spirt and start that holiday crafting.
If you would like to check out the entire NEW Slimline Holiday Collection from Spellbinders (CLICK HERE!) to visit their online store to shop or to check out their blog to find more inspiration using these NEW products.
This first project uses the Christmas Blooms etched dies and a few other products from the collection. I use a lot of white card stock on my card projects, so anywhere you see white cardstock it is 110 heavy weight cardstock. I simply cut my slimline card panel to 3 inches by 8 inches. I like this size because it leaves a small border around my card panel to show off the card base below it. I then used the circles from the Circle Kaleidoscope set to cut out three circle apertures into my panel. Although the Circle Kaleidoscope dies are very ornate, they do also cut out perfect circles for basic die-cutting such as this. Before doing anything else I added a line of stitching with my sewing machine around the entire panel creating about a quarter of an inch border.

I then cut three additional pieces from the same white cardstock to fit behind each circle window (each piece will sit “behind” the windows). The first was embossed with the Big Dot slimline embossing folder, the second, I stamped “have a very merry Christmas” from the You and Yours stamp set with black ink and then hand stitched a circle around the sentiment. The easiest way I have found to do this is to use a circle template and a paper piercer to pre-punch the holes in a good-enough circle. Then I hand stitch using only a few strands of embroidery thread or in this case I used the same thread that was in my sewing machine so that the stitches somewhat coordinated. The third circle aperture was then embossed with the Diagonal Stripes Slimline embossing folder. Now all three circles will have a slightIy different design to them. I popped the circle panel up with foam squares giving the panel a bit of dimension.
Lastly, I cut a bunch of elements from the Christmas Blooms die set to add poinsettias, pine cones, and holly to each circle to decorate it for Christmas. The top and bottom clusters are fairly similar but the center was simply adorned with two holly and berry clusters. The entire panel was added to a light gray Silver Fox card base cut to 8 1/2 by 7 inches and scored at the 3 1/2 inch mark.
To finish off this card I added some coordinating enamel dots from my stash into the centers of the poinsettia.
