Christmas is one week away, and if you’re just tuning in, here’s the latest from my craft corner: I’m still making cards.

I am far away from where I was a year ago. I had hoped I would be in the signed-sealed-sent stage by this point. Procrastination breeds creativity, right?

Thank goodness for die-cut machines. My Slice did a lot of heavy lifting last year. It’s been outpaced by my Silhouette Portrait, which gives me the ability to cut out an entire card if I want. It sort of feels like cheating when I do that.

If you don’t have a machine, stores offer die-cuts aplenty, making the craft process faster  … though I still cut out stamped shapes by hand. (For more die-cut holiday card creations, please check out my Pinterest board.)

This card has a touch of die-cut magic with a simple “merry” in glitter cardstock. The fun part of this creation isn’t the glitter, though: it’s the splattered paint mist.

Here’s how to make it:

Cut a 4 1/2-inch-square piece of black textured cardstock. Drip pearlescent white paint mist (such as Heidi Swapp Color Shine in white) horizontally across the center of this piece. Allow the paint to dry.

Make a card from a 5-by-10-inch piece of green glitter cardstock (mine’s The Paper Studio glitter cardstock in dark green) and adhere the black cardstock, centered, to the card’s front.

Affix a strip of white glitter tape (I used American Crafts Tazzel tape in white) horizontally over the paint splatters. Trim off any excess tape from the card’s edges.

Adhere a die-cut of “merry” in green glitter (I created mine using my Portrait, Channel font in 48 pt. and Paper Studio glitter cardstock) over the right-side portion of the tape.