Christmas Bauble card tutorial

I have been making a Christmas Bauble card with woven ribbon to make a lattice pattern in a aperture, and thought I would share it with you by doing a tutorial.  I have only done one other tutorial on my blog, so I am new to this, so I hope the instructions make sense.

This is a finished card. But for the tutorial I am doing a green version. 

Some of the materials you will need to make the card are a reel of 3mm ribbon, some card that coordinates or contrasts the ribbon, a holly die, I have used the Marianne creatable holly LR0244, some red gems and a ribbon tied from the ribbon.  

 I have done my version on the Silhouette cameo, but you can achieve the same results if you have a Christmas Bauble die such as the Marianne Creatables, or the Spellbinder Heirloom bauble die.  Bare in mind though, that if your die isn't perfectly symmetrical,  then you will need to flip your top piece over, so that they fit perfectly on top of each other for the finished card.  

One piece of white card is 23cm x 18cm 

 which will be folded in half to make the card. The second piece that is 18cm x 11.5cm.

The bauble is is cut into both pieces.  The larger one is cut so that the bottom point is 2.5cm from the bottom, and 2.5 cm in from the right hand side.  The smaller piece is 1.2cm  from the bottom and 1.2cm from each side.  

The piece that you cut out, use as a template and draw around the outside on a scrap piece of card like the one below, and draw a diagonal grid 1cm between lines.

Next lay the larger piece over your grid, and fasten down with removable tape if you wish.

With a reel of of 3mm ribbon.  Anything will be OK, I used some gold edged ribbon for some of my other examples.  Cut small pieces and stick each one along one side with some acid free sticky tape.  Leave the other end loose at this stage. 

Next you want to weave another strip of ribbon under and over the pieces you have already stuck down, going on the diagonal by lifting every second ribbon and slipping it under, and letting it fall back into place.  Once you have finished, stick it down each end.  

Continue in this way, gradually filling up the aperture.  

You must make sure you don't go beyond the area that is to be covered with the smaller cut out piece (top) as it is to hide all the tape and ends.  

When you have completed this, go around the outside area of the bauble with double sided tape, to look like the one below and set aside for the time being.

 Now we need to get the top (smaller) piece ready.  

With the side that is going to be the front, put a small piece of ribbon folded over the top down to the top of the bauble, and folded through the top of the cut shape. Stick this down at the back with some sticky tape, like below.

With your contrast or coordinating card cut a piece that is 9.5cm x 16cm. 

(Apologies, this piece is actually a forest green, but it didn't photograph very well)
Using your top piece as a template, lay it on the card centering it so that the green forms a border around it, draw around the cut out piece with a pencil.  

Next you want to cut roughly around this shape making it slightly bigger than the pencil outline, and remove the piece.

Now mount the top white part with the ribbon strip onto this piece with double sided tape, so that it makes a small frame around the top part.

Go back to the base part, peel off the top part of the double sided tape that you have put around the woven ribbon, and now mount the top part onto the base, with double sided tape around the perimeter, making sure you match the two apertures perfectly.  Press down where the top meets the woven ribbon to make sure it seals the layers.  

Finally cut out some holly

stick it either side of the ribbon strip that goes to the top, glue the ribbon bow over where they join.  put some red gems as berries on to the holly stalks.  You can put a sentiment onto it if you wish, I chose to leave it simple and clean.  

Below is some other colour variations I have made and some other versions with a slightly different shaped bauble, with some music paper as the top and a poinsettia as well.  

The possibilities and colour combinations are endless.  Do give it a go, and I look forward to seeing some done.