Here we are at the first 25th of the year! I know Christmas seems like yesterday, but we know that we all should be starting on making those special hand-made cards to send to friends and family! Here is a bit of inspiration for you from Karen. Trimming the Tree by Karen Letchworth There's always "that one die" with every company.....you know "that one" I'm talking about.....that very special one that catches your eye immediately, and you can't stop thinking about it. Yes, now you're getting the idea. Well, for me....."that one special die" from Frantic Stamper was IMMEDIATELY the Frantic Stamper Original Precision Die called Large Blue Spruce. From the moment I saw this amazing die, I knew in my mind what I wanted to do with it. Right away, I was envisioning these sweet trees cut from vellum. I was envisioning the vellum making the trees appear as though they are snow-covered. I contemplated glittering them to also capture the feeling of snow; but instead, I layered the vellum trees, and then added some white sequins. I even used a small piece of double-sided foam tape to raise up one of the trees. Don't they look lovely? I think next time, I'll sprinkle them with some glitter. How pretty! My card uses some sweet Crate Paper patterned papers and adorable chipboard pieces from their Bundled Up Collection, and the sentiment I chose is a dainty little Melissa Frances Rub-On. I tried to keep it simple so that these lovely vellum die-cut trees would be the star of my card. Here in this second, more close-up photo of the card, you can really see the wonderful textures of these gorgeous vellum trees. The high quality of these precision dies always make a crisp clean cut right through the vellum with ease. I've yet to find a paper or other medium that I can't use with these wonderful dies. I just LOVE how these sweet vellum Large Blue Spruce Trees cut from vellum look on my card. I was right to think of it as "that one die", wasn't I? I absolutely love the sweet feel of a snow-capped forest I get from using this die with the vellum. Here's a look at another card: This last photo is a close-up of the second card. I just wanted you to see how the card looks with different numbers of layers of the vellum trees. Now, I've got myself thinking of using this die-cut to create gorgeous trees in green paper, in wool felt, in rustic paper, and so many other great textures and colors. What an amazingly GORGEOUS die-cut. Thanks so much for stopping by to take a look at the two cards I've created using this fabulous die-cut. I really encourage you to check out this sweet die for yourself. You really would love it; along with several other lovely tree dies and other amazing shapes Frantic Stamper sells. Use your imagination to use Frantic Stamper dies to help you create something wonderful today! *** Materials for this project available at www.franticstamper.com. FRA-Die-09444 Tweet