Making Christmas Cards (Yes, It’s That Time Again!)

I decided two things about making Christmas cards this year. First, I would stop worrying about making each card unique and come up with some designs that could be massed produced. Second, I would start early so that I wouldn’t be frantically making cards as fast as my husband mails them out. Apparently this year, I’m defining mid-October as early. Since I have several holiday stamps, stencils and dies, it’s time to pull them out and start putting them to use for this year.

I love this snowflake background stamp from Hero Arts so I decided to make it the star of the show. I stamped the image on white card stock and heat embossed it with white embossing powder to create a resist pattern. I blended Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Blueprint Sketch over the embossing to make the design pop. I used the Country Landscape die from Memory Box to create the village scene in the foreground and added a sentiment from the Comfort & Joy stamp set by Avery Elle. For the inside, I added a bold sentiment from the Wishing You Love stamp set by Neat & Tangled.

Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Print by Hero Arts; Comfort & Joy by Avery Elle; Wishing You Love by Neat & Tangled
Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Print by Hero Arts; Comfort & Joy by Avery Elle (front sentiment); Wishing You Love by Neat & Tangled (inside sentiment)

I made all the individual component parts first. I cut the card bases from Neenah 110# card stock and stamped the inside sentiment using my Misti.  I cut all the bases for embossing and all of the village scenes from Neenah 80# card stock. Using my Misti, I stamped the sentiment on all of the village die cuts and stamped and heat embossed all of the snowflake backgrounds. Finally, I ink blended all of the snowflake backgrounds.

In a couple of hours, I had all of the component parts ready for assembly. At the moment, I have ten cards assembled and will finish the final five cards later today.

Rowhouse Greetings | Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Print by Hero Arts
Mass producing Christmas cards. 10 down – 5 to go!

While I love how these cards turned out, the design is still a little labor intensive. So hopefully my next design will have fewer moving parts!

Below are the supplies I’ve used for today’s project. All items were personally purchased except those marked with an asterisk (*) . I never share a product I do not like. Read more.

Supplies

Paper: Neenah Solar White #110; Neenah Solar White #80
Stamps: Hand Drawn Snowflakes Bold Print by Hero Arts; Comfort & Joy by Avery Elle; Wishing You Love by Neat & Tangled
Inks: Midnight Blue Premium Ink by Dare 2B Artzy; Versamark by Tsukineko; Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Blueprint Sketch
Dies: Country Landscape by Memory Box; Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables by Lawn Fawn

You Add Color to My World Featuring Neat & Tangled

I spent yesterday at the Creative Keepsakes Scrapbook Convention at the Lancaster Convention Center helping out Tracy in the Photo Scraps booth. It was great to see so many people stop by the booth where Tracy was selling her custom scrapbook papers. When things slowed down a bit, I had some time to walk around and check out the other vendors. I couldn’t avoid the temptation to shop, so a few new stamp sets, stencils, and embossing mediums made the trip home with me.

One of my purchases was this Paint Night stamp set from Neat & Tangled. Being a colorist myself, I couldn’t resist both the cuteness of this stamp set and the endless possibilities for its use. I mixed various stamps from the set to create this scene and colored it with Copic markers (see colors below). I wanted to keep the design fairly simple, so I used texture instead of color to add interest to the card. I embossed the background layer using one of the Tim Holtz Alterations Embossing Folders from Sizzix, adding texture to the background without competing with the colored image.

So that’s it for today! What’s waiting for you on your craft table?

Below are the supplies I’ve used for today’s project. All items were personally purchased except those marked with an asterisk (*) . I never share a product I do not like. Read more.

Supplies

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110#; X-Press It by Copic; Borders from the Simply Spring collection by Bella Blvd.
Stamp: Paint Night by Neat & Tangled
Inks: Black Amalgam by Gina K. Designs
Dies: Large Stitched Rectangle Stackables by Lawn Fawn
Embossing Folder: Texture Fades by Sizzix Tim Holtz
Copics: E000, E00, E21, E93, V20 (skin); E41, E43, E44, E47 (hair); B21, B24, B28 (dress); C00, C01 (apron); C0, C5, C7 (shoes); E23 (easle); R32, R35, R46, B24, B28, Y02, Y15, Y19, YG05, YG09, RV55, RV63 (lettering); B21, B24, YG03, YG05, YG09, Y02, Y15, Y19, R32 (landscape)

Fa La Llama by Neat & Tangled

Today I’m back with a new Copic coloring project featuring the adorable Fa La Llama stamp set from Neat & Tangled. Danielle Walls, from Neat & Tangled will be bringing with her a Trunk Show of her stamp images to the Queen’s Ink this Saturday. But more about that in a moment!

I knew as soon as I saw this stamp set that I had to color this image so I pulled out my Copic markers and got to work. The full list of Copic colors are listed below. After the coloring was complete, I embellished the sky to look like snow, adding dots with gel pens in white and silver as well as a little Kirarina Wink in White Pearl. I added Wink of Stella in Clear to the blanket and scarf for some shimmer. For additional sparkle, I added Ranger Stickles to the sky and the ground to give the snow some dimension.

JOIN US ON SATURDAY FOR
THE NEAT & TANGLED TRUNK SHOW!

On Saturday, The Queen’s Ink will be hosting The Coloring Challenge Road Trip featuring Kathy Racoosin, a Maryland artist (and friend of the Queen) who hosts a wonderful technique filled blog The Daily Marker. Although seats for this event are sold out, you can still get in on the fun. Danielle Walls, from Neat & Tangled will be joining Kathy and bringing with her a Trunk Show of her stamp images that are great for coloring. They will be available for purchase on the day of the event.

As a way of giving back to the community Kathy is donating her time and $30.00 of the registration fee will go to support Dan DiGennaro, Danielle’s dad who is suffering from CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome). The Queen’s Ink will be donating 10% of its sales from that to support Dan and his journey toward wellness.

Stop by, check out the Trunk Show and join in on the fun!

SUPPLIES

Below are the supplies I’ve used for today’s project. Items marked with an asterisk (*) were provided by a store or the manufacturer for free or at a discount. All other items were personally purchased. Read more.

Paper: Neenah Solar White 110#; X-Press It Blending Card by Copic; Frosty Winter Two (*) by Authentique; Bazzill Basics in Smokey
Stamp: Fa La Llama by Neat & Tangled
Ink: Versamark Watermark Ink and Memento in Tuxedo Black, both by Tsukineko
Die: Small Stitched Rectangle Stackables by Lawn Fawn
Embellishments: Sakura Gelly Roll Pens in White and Silver (snow); Kirarina Wink in White Pearl (snow); Stampendous Detail White Embossing Powder (sentiment); Ranger Stickles in Crystal (snow); Zig Wink of Stella in Clear (blanket and scarf) Festival of Light Sequins from 28 Lilac Lane.
Copics: B37, B39, C9 (sky); W00, W0, W1 E30 (llama); E00, E97 (face); BG49, BG53, BG57, V01, V05, V06, V09 (scarf); V01, V05, V06, BG59, BG53 (blanket); BG49, BG53, BG57 (gift wrap); V01, V05, V06, V09 (ribbon); BG0000, BG000, BG10, B0000, B000, BV00 (snow)