Pink & Main | Have a Llama Christmas

I love to mix old with new! I think it's a great way to stretch your stash and give your stamps new life. 

The llamas in the Fa La Llama Stamp Set are the cutest! They're from last year, but I thought they deserved a comeback! They were my favorite then and are still at the top of my "oh em geeeeee" list! I knew I wanted to use them, so I started there. I stamped them and colored them with Copic Markers then used my Mini Maker Die Cutting Machine and the coordinating Fa La Llama Dies to cut out the images. 

My original plan for this card was A2 sized, but I had the Plaid Slimline Die sitting on my desk and it was just so perfect! When I receive background dies I like to cut them from white cardstock just so that I can see what the die actually looks like and it just seemed made to be! 

I wanted to spruce up the card background a bit and I found the light blue starry paper in the Be Merry 6x6 Paper Pad went perfectly with the color combo for the llamas. The trouble is that the paper is 6 inches wide and the Plaid Slimline die is 8.5 inches long. No problem! I did a bit of patterned paper cutting trickery! I needed two pieces of the Be Merry paper to make it work. I turned the paper diagonally and glued it behind one of the "stripes" in the Plaid Slimline Die about halfway down the panel. Then I butted up the second piece of patterned paper with the first and trimmed away the excess. The seam where the two papers meet is behind one of the white die cut stripes. No one will ever know! 

I started arranging my llamas on my card front and realized it looked empty. The background was just too large for my original design and the llamas looked silly hanging out all by themselves. I grabbed another favorite of mine - the Thin Alpha Dies - and die cut the word "merry" from teal and silver glitter cardstock. The Thin Alpha Dies are perfectly sized to use with the Mini Maker Die Cutting Machine and I had no problem at all cutting through the thick glitter cardstock! 

I hope you've enjoyed this mashup of old and new! I'll see you soon!