Sophisticated Sled

I nearly missed participating in Christmas in July, but “better late than never”, right?

I’m thinking I should start making one Christmas card per week, just to get a jump start on the holiday season, rather than feeling the pressure of doing it all later in the year. Do you want to join me in that challenge?

Well, let’s get into today’s card…

I’ve admired holiday porch decor for quite some time, especially when I see an old sled decorated with evergreen branches, big red bows, and an old pair of skates.

It brings me back to my childhood on the farm when we would take an old sled (and a plastic toboggan) to one of the cattle pastures and go sliding down a bumpy hill. Occasionally we would also take a pair of hand-me-down skates and try to stay upright on the frozen pond. I honestly was never a fan of being out in the cold, and my ankles just couldn’t seem to hold me up on those skates, but the whole memory holds a special place in my heart. Perhaps thats why I love the nostalgia of the Sophisticated Sled set from ©Stampin’ Up!®

As always, I love that the stamp set comes with both matching and coordinating dies. Not only can you stamp the images and die cut them out, you can also die cut cardstock and assemble some of the items without stamping them first. This gives even more possibilities for our holiday paper crafting creativity.

Since I wanted to use even more of the new Online Exclusives Christmas items I recently got, I decided to add bells to my sled from the Golden Greenery Bundle (or the Seasons of Green and Gold Suite Collection).

Because of the dimension of the sled, I thought a mini-slim card would be fun to try. I’ve seen a couple different measurements for mini-slims, but I decided to make mine 5 1/2 inches tall so it would fit into a regular A2 size envelope. I cut the Very Vanilla base 6 1/2 inches wide and scored it at 3 1/4 inches. So my finished card size is 3 1/4 x 5 1/2.

I adhered a panel of Mossy Meadow cardstock directly to the card front, cut at 3 1/4 x 5 1/2.

The next layer is Very Vanilla cut at 3 x 5 1/4 and embossed with the Distressed Tile 3D embossing folder. I added interest and brought out the embossed texture by adding some Basic Beige ink around the edges with a sponge dauber. I adhered this layer directly to the Mossy Meadow layer.

I cut the frame of the sled from Cherry Cobbler cardstock.

The wooden base pieces of the sled are cut from Crumb Cake cardstock. I added Crumb Cake ink with a sponge dauber for added distressing.

From the Golden Greenery Bundle, I cut the small evergreen branch four times from Mossy Meadow cardstock and splattered with white gouache to look like snow. I trimmed each branch down a little so they would fit across the top of the sled.

I also cut the small bell twice from Basic Beige cardstock and inked the edges with Basic Beige ink.

I didn’t have red ribbon, so I took an 18 inch piece of 1/4 inch wide seam binding and inked it with my Dark Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Blends Alcohol marker. I then tied this into a loopy bow and adhered it to my bells and branches, and adhered everything to the front of the sled. The sled was glued directly to the card front.

For the sentiment, I used the oval tag die from the Greetings of the Season bundle and partial die cut, out of Basic Beige cardstock, the end without the hole, flipped the die around and cut the remaining half of the oval. I was left with an oval for my sentiment without the hole that is typically used for string or ribbon on a tag.

I stamped Season’s Greetings to this oval with Early Espresso ink.

Since there are a lot of steps, I added chapters to the video so you can skip to the parts you want to see. Watch the YouTube tutorial here:

Supplies used:

Stampin’ Up! Sophisticated Sled Bundle

Stampin’ Up! Season of Green and Gold Suite Collection 

Golden Greenery Bundle

Greetings of the Season Bundle  

Season of Green and Gold 12x12 Designer Series Paper

Graceful Greenery 12x12 Vellum

Very Vanilla ¾” Satin Ribbon  

Cherry Cobbler and Pearl Adhesive-Backed Berries 

Stampin’ Up! Distressed Tile 3D Embossing Folder

Stampin’ Up! Cardstock: Basic Beige, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow

Stampin’ Classic Ink Pads: Basic Beige, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso

Stampin’ Blends Alcohol Markers (Cherry Cobbler)

Stampin’ Dimensionals, regular and mini

Liquid glue

Baker’s Twine

Sharp scissors

Stamp positioning tool or acrylic blocks

Other favorite craftroom supplies:

Seam binding

Mint tape (low-tack tape)

Precision Glue Press

White Gouache

Thanks for spending some time with me today! I hope you are inspired to go be creative and maybe get a jumpstart on your holiday cards.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me at leahfayehandmade@gmail.com.

If you are interested in adding any of the items above, or taking a look through the online store, please click the “Shop With Me” button at the top or bottom of the page.

Have a great rest of your day!