Crafty Elves Countdown to Christmas | May 2026 Edition | Wreath Card | Fred She Said

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Hello everyone, and welcome to the May 2026 Edition of the Crafty Elves Countdown to Christmas with Deb and Lisa.  If you are new here, on the 25th of each month, we (the Crafty Elves) post one or more holiday cards, hoping to inspire you to make your own cards for the holidays. 

One way to show your cards off to the world is by entering them in a card challenge blog.  One of the largest I have found is "A Perfect Time to Craft".  Every month, they have a sponsor for the challenge, offering the chance to win some free digitals if you upload one of your own cards.  Every month is an "Anything Goes" theme, and even though there is a sponsor, you don't need to use their products if you don't have any.

This month, their sponsor is Fred She Said, and, having never heard of them, I went over and checked out their store.  I ended up buying 3 digital sets, one of which I used on today's card, which I plan to enter it in the May "A Perfect Time To Craft Card Challenge Blog".  If you make a card, try to enter it in their challenge too.  

The set I used for today's Crafty Elf card is the Christmas Wreath Digi Set (uncoloured), which comes with several plain wreaths and sentiments, and wreaths with the sentiments already inside for you.  They also offer the Christmas Wreath Pre-Coloured set for those who want to print and use.   

This is how I made today's card.

  • I printed my image at 115% on 140lb A4 watercolor paper, trimmed it to 5.5" x 5.5", and die-cut the center using a 2 3/8" circle die. 

On my Epson printer, if I ask it to print more than 2 of the same image, the printer figures out the largest it can print.  In my case, using A4-sized paper, the largest was 115%.  I made some tests to see if this changes when using different percentages and different-sized papers.  Here is what I found out using MY Epson printer.  Your printer might differ. 

Printing 2 images on A4 cardstock at 115% gives me images that measure +/- 5.5" x 5.5".
Printing 2 images on A4 or 8.5" x 11" cardstock at 100% gives me images that measure +/- 4.75" x 4.75".
Printing 2 images on 8.5" x 11" cardstock at 108% (the largest the printer will print on this size paper) gave me images that measure +/- 5.25" x 5.25"

So, if you want to print a different size image, play around with the percentages on your printer.   I also go into this in more detail and show the differences in the video.  
  • I colored in the image using only 3 markers.  I used two Tombow markers for the two tones of green - No. 195 for the lighter green and No. 245 for the darker green.  For the red berries, I used the Rambunctious Red BIC Intensity Ultra Fine Tip marker.  I colored the holly leaves by using the darker green on the leaf veins and then went back and blended the leaf using the lighter green.   I also used the lighter green on the leaf sprigs popping off the sides. 
  • Once fully colored, I layered it on a piece of red cardstock, 5.75" x 5.75".

  • For my card base, I cut a piece of white cardstock, 6" x 12," scored at 6" on the long side, and burnished well.  I adhered a piece of gold adhesive paper to the front of the card.  You can also use Gold Mirror cardstock too, but I was out of it.  While the gold adhesive paper was out, I also die-cut a piece of it using a 2 1/8" circle die (for the sentiment).    
  • I cut a piece of fun foam 5 5/8" x 5 5/8", adhered it to the back of the red cardstock, and then adhered the whole piece to the front of my card.
  • Next, my sentiment.  I printed one of the sentiments at 125%, die-cut it using a 2" stitched circle die, and adhered a piece of fun foam to the back.  I adhered the gold circle I die-cut earlier to the center of the card front, and adhered the sentiment on top.    
  • To bring some of the colors on the front to the inside, I cut a piece of the red cardstock, 5.75" x 5.75", and adhered it to the inside.  Then I cut a piece of white cardstock, 5.5" x 5.5", stamped my holiday greeting from the Scripted Holidays Set from Technique Junkies, and adhered it to the red cardstock. 
  • Lastly, to finish this card I adhered red crystals where the berries are.  


I hope you have enjoyed this card idea, and I hope it inspires you to start making your own holiday cards this year.  Don't forget to visit the other Crafty Elves and see what they made.  All our social media links are below.  

Michael - World of Michael Trent

Debra - Meticulosity
Lisa - Life of a BZ Scrapper
Blog (today's card)

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  Until next time - 

Hugs from Brasil.

~Michael

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