Christmas Cards
This set of six cards is the most I’ve made in a single ‘batch’. They all started the same way, by creating an alcohol ink background on Yupo paper. I deliberately varied the colours of the wispy alcohol ink background on each card, but included blue on all of them.
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[Image ID] Stained glass window and 2 candles. The stained glass window is a black, pointed arch with a rose window shape in the top and arches underneath. To the left of the window is a tall thin candle on a tall thin candlestick. Just to the right of that, and in front of the window is a pillar style candle on a short and squat candlestick. [description end]
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I made the backgrounds first, and die-cut the focal points a couple of days later. This first one combines a stained glass window die from a Gemini stamp & die set with candle dies from the Sizzix Colorize range. The two layers of brown on the candle sticks are actually cut from the same piece of kraft paper which was conveniently a different colour on each side.
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[Image ID] Stable scene with gold star above. The stable and characters are all silhouettes. The manger is in the centre in the stable with Mary one side and Joseph the other. Approaching the stable from the left are 2 kings and a shepherd approaches from the right. [description end]
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My process for choosing the layouts for each card involved laying the metal dies over the card front and shuffling them around to see what looked nice. This was especially helpful as some of the dies had no bottom cutting edge so I had to measure how much paper I needed beneath the image. Having shuffled the dies around, I die cut multiple of the star image from gold glitter card so I could repeat it across several of the cards.
The nativity is a mixture of the ‘Gemini Dimensionals – Away In A Manger’ (kings) and ‘Nativity Of Light’ (stable) set, also by Gemini.
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[Image ID] Stable scene with gold star above. In the stable Mary is on the right and kneeling and Joseph is standing on the left, with the manger between them. Outside, 2 palm trees of differing heights are growing either side of the stable. [description end]
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I really liked the style of this nativity scene from the ‘Away In A manger’ set so opted not to embellish the card further.
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[Image ID] There is a gold 8 point star in the top left hand corner. The scene below it is a silhouette of a Bethlehem street with a palm tree on the far right hand side. [description end]
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This alcohol ink background was so bold that it needed to be part of the focal point rather than simply a background. For this I decided to use part of the silhouette buildings die from the ‘Nativity Of Light’ set.
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[Image ID] The centre of the card is a silhouette of a donkey lying down and a sheep and shepherd stood under a palm tree. This silhouette scene is framed by a gold, pointed arch and there is a gold star in the top left hand corner. [description end]
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The shepherd scene, and the window shape behind, is also from the ‘Nativity of Light set’. All of the Christmas dies I used on these cards were originally designed to coordinate with other sets and make fancy ‘3D’ or ‘effect’ cards, but I was drawn to them for the images themselves. The majority of my cards are a standard side-fold A6, and I think the simpler card base helps the images to stand out.
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[Image ID] A full nativity silhouette. The centre of the scene is a stable, topped by a star, with Mary & Joseph kneeling either side of the manger. On the far left of the scene are 2 palm trees with a shepherd and a sheep beneath them. Between the shepherd and the stable is a donkey. On the far right hand side are 2 kings on camels and in front of them is a 3rd king who is kneeling and offering his gift. [description end]
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This final card is made with a die by Riverside Beads, which is a craft shop in Market Deeping. I really like how the whole scene is in a single die with a bottom cutting edge which fits nicely on my usual card size. Unlike the rest, this card is in a landscape orientation. I have used this die before in a project I shared on Instagram last year. That post can be viewed here.
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[Image ID] A Group photo of all 6 cards. [description end]
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This is a picture I took of all six cards together before sending them to their recipients.
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[Image ID] A winter landscape and an angel. The sky is blue and green like the Northern lights. In the top left corner is an angel playing a golden bugle. Hark the herald angels sing is stamped across the card above the top of the mountains. A silhouetted forest is in the foreground at the bottom of the card. [description end]
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This is an extra card I made more recently for someone in my family. It combines stamps from an older issue of Creative Stamping Magazine, with dies from Tonic Studios ‘Shoot For The Moon’ set. This card is 5” by 7” which is nearly twice the size of my usual cards. I’ve rarely worked with this size, but it is a nice change and something I hope to do more often.
The background is a mixture of distress inks and oxides. I used ink (Lucky Clover) for the green auroras and then blended oxide in Tumbled Glass and Prize Ribbon around the green to create the sky. The mountain range is cut from tracing paper (which I used in place of Vellum) and the front trees are cut black paper like the silhouettes in the previous cards. The back trees are created with a stamp from the Shoot For The Moon set, and the white tops on the mountains were drawn with a white gel pen. I stamped the angel and sentiment with Hero Arts white pigment ink – which works much better than a versacolour one I had tried previously.
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[Stamps and dies]
Nativity Of Light die set (Gemini)
Away In A Manger die set (Gemini)
Long nativity scene die (Riverside Beads, Market Deeping)
Candle dies: Candlelight Colorize die set (Sizzix)
Window die in card 1: Treasured Memories stamp & die set (Gemini)
Dies & tree stamp on the 5”7” card: Shoot For The Moon stamp & die set (Tonic Studios)
Angel & sentiment: Issue 89 of Creative Stamping
[Other notable supplies]
Distress Ink in Lucky Clover
Distress Oxide in Tumbled Glass and Prize Ribbon
Hero Arts Whit Pigment Ink
White Gel Pen (Sakura Gelly Roll)
Gold paint pen (Posca)
Glitter Card in Welsh Gold (Tonic Studios)
Black paper
Kraft paper
Yupo paper
Alcohol Ink in pool, raspberry, salmon, pebble, & mushroom
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