How to Make a Christmas Ornament Card

Cut your card base and fold it in half, then burnish the fold well. Lay the folded card on the trimmer with the fold on the 1 1/2 inch mark and trim the front panel only, up to the fold. Turn the card round and cut 1 1/2 inches up from the bottom edge. Lift out the middle section. The loose bottom strip will become the base of the window later, so keep it.

Cut two cream mats, about 1 3/8 x 5 3/4 inches, and two strips of patterned paper a little smaller. Amanda picked a teal paper with copper foil swirls. Glue a cream mat to the top strip and another to the loose bottom strip. Then press a patterned strip onto each mat, leaving a thin cream border all round. Wet glue lets you slide it until it sits straight.

Cut a cream panel, about 5 3/4 x 4 inches, and glue it to the inside of the card. This is what shows through the window, so center it well. Do all of your gluing now, before the acetate goes on. Amanda added a spare scrap of patterned paper inside too, so the card looks finished when it is opened.

Clip the bottom strip in place so it lines up with the card. Cut a piece of acetate a little narrower than the card and add strong double-sided tape along its top and bottom edges. Press the top edge onto the back of the top strip. Then lay the bottom strip in line with the card edges and press it onto the lower tape. The acetate now joins the two pieces.

Ink an ornament stamp with dark ink and stamp it on a scrap of white cardstock. Lift the block straight up so the lines stay crisp. Stamp a mix of shapes: a tall lattice bauble, a round swirly one and a small one. You need about four ornaments for one card. Stamp a few spares in case one smudges.

Slide the stamped cardstock into the matching ornament punch, upside down, so you can see the image through the opening. Line the stamped lines up with the edge of the punch and press. A matching die set and a die cutting machine do the same job. Each ornament comes out with a thin white border around it.

Color the cap at the top of each ornament with a gold gel pen. It ties in with the foil on the paper. Let it dry. Then trim away the white border with small scissors, using the punched edge as your guide. You only need to trim if you plan to ink the edges. Untrimmed ornaments are fine for a quicker card.

Tap a sponge dauber on the ink pad and dab most of it off on scrap paper. Flick it around the cut edge of the ornament so no white shows. Then work inward in small, light circles. Keep the edges darker and the middle pale. That gives each bauble a rounded look, as if light is catching it. Use teal for some and green for others.

Put a tiny dot of glue at the top and bottom of an ornament and press it across the window, so it touches the patterned strips. Hold it for a moment. Add a second ornament overlapping the first, a little higher, so they are not level. Set a pair on the other side and tuck the small one under its neighbor. Use as little glue as you can on the acetate.

Stamp a Merry Christmas sentiment on a strip of cream cardstock. Let it dry, then trim it close by eye, leaving a narrow border. Put small pieces of foam adhesive on the back. Amanda used offcuts of foam strips left over from other cards. Press the sentiment onto the bottom strip, near the right corner, and check it is straight.