Materials List:

• Sizzix by Tim Holtz Pine Branches 3D Embossing Folder
• Gina K Designs Winter Wonderland Die Set
• Hero Arts Year Round Messages
• Hero Arts Hero Hues 111# Card Stock, 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ – Palm
• 135# Cold Press Watercolor Paper – 4″ x 5 1/4″
• A2 Card Base – Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ flat
• Distress Embossing Glaze – Rustic Wilderness & Twisted Citron
• Distress Oxide Ink – Rustic Wilderness
• Distress Oxide Crayon – Fresh Balsam
• Watercolor Palette – Jazper Stardust, Cob Matte
• VersaMark Watermark Ink
• Detail Silver Embossing Powder

I have a few upcoming projects featuring glazed images – This is the first! I love the small, cool color palette on this card. It feels frosty! The YouTube video is here if you’d like to see more detail.

I started with the watercolor panel and lightly pencilled in two faint lines for hills, from approximately center left on the panel to the top 1/3 mark on the right and bottom 1/3 mark on the right (I refer to these as upper hill and lower hill.) I erased most of the pencil marks, leaving just enough to be able to see in order to add the watercolor. Using clean water and a #4 round watercolor brush I added a light layer of water along the top of each line, extending up approx an inch. *I created a very light wash and a darker wash of Cob Matte in my palette. I applied the lighter wash into the water line I created on the panel, allowing the color to blend with the water and start to spread up from the line. I added additional color along the lines until I had a shade that best resembled snow banks. Allow to dry. *Note: If you don’t have watercolor or don’t want to use watercolor for this step you could simply freehand some hillsides using paper templates, Distress Oxide Tumbled Glass ink and a blender brush. Apply lightly and build the color until you have a shade that you like!

Next I misted the back of the panel lightly with water and then placed it front side up in my Pine Branch embossing folder. The folder is larger than the panel, so I lined up the panel from the top left edge. I ran this sandwich through my Platinum 6 three times to get a good impression.

It isn’t necessary to create the trees next but I was excited to try the Rustic Wilderness/Twisted Citron color combo. I die cut three trees out of a cover-weight cardstock. Heavier is better when inking and heating up these images. I cut one large tree and two small trees from the set. I set up my work surface with a folded paper towel (where I’ll apply the embossing ink) and two sheets of copy paper that I folded and then opened flat (to catch the extra embossing glaze as I apply.) To glaze the trees I followed this process:

• Apply embossing ink to the entire front surface of the image, taking care to coat the tips of the branches
• Apply Twisted Citron Embossing Glaze along the center of the image, top to bottom
• Apply Rustic Wilderness Embossing Glaze to the outside edges, ensuring that the entire surface is covered with glaze.
• Heat the glaze with a heat tool until the glaze is shiny. Don’t overheat! If it bubbles it is too hot!
• Repeat this process to create two additional layers of glaze. On the 3rd layer you can fine-tune the light/dark ratio to create interesting highlight and shadow!

I set the trees aside to cool while I worked on the inking on the embossed area.

For the inking I started with the Fresh Balsam Distress Crayon. I used my finger to apply the ink along the center of each pine branch, avoiding the tips of the branches. Next I used the Rustic Wilderness ink pad to lightly color the raised image on the panel. Holding the ink pad parallel to the panel I lightly dragged the pad over the embossed area so that only the raised area was in contact with the pad. This takes a little practice! Rest assured that any small stray areas of ink can usually be removed with a Tombow Mono sand eraser. Finally I used some clean water, a paper towel and the tip of my finger to very gently tap a tiny amount of water over the inked area, again avoiding the tips of the branches. The object here is to start to blend the lighter green crayon ink with the darker green to create dimension. The lighter green ink starts to move down to the paper layer and the darker green softens but stays on the pine needles. It is a cool effect!

Next I placed the panel into my Misti and lined up the “Happy New Year” stamp on the bottom right side of the panel. I inked the stamp with VersaMark embossing ink and then applied the detail silver embossing powder. I heat-set the powder and it was time to assemble the card.

This card has two panels that layer onto the card base. There will be a 1/16″ border around each panel. I started by glueing the trees onto the panel; the large tree and one small tree on the lower hill and the other small tree on the upper hill near the right edge of the panel. I followed the contour of the hill when deciding on placement as it added a bit more realism. I glued this panel onto the Palm cardstock, again leaving a 1/16″ margin on all sides, and then glued this assembled piece to the card base. Card complete! This one came together very quickly so it is a great card for mass producing. You could even switch out the “Happy New Year” greeting for a “Thank You” and use this design for your holiday Thank You cards.

I hope your holiday season was wonderful. I’m looking forward to some Valentine’s Day design work in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Cynthia

Materials List:

• Honey Bee Stamps Scandinavian Christmas Stamp and Die Set
• Hero Arts Hero Hues 111# Card Stock – Pitch Black
• Ranger Perfect Pearls: Confetti White, Sunflower Sparkle, Mint
• Ranger Perfect Medium
• Versamark Embossing Ink
• Ranger Detail Silver Embossing Powder
• Pops of Color – Satin Pearl
• Wow! Embossing Powder – Metallic Copper

I’ve pulled out the Perfect Pearls several times in the last few months and worked on some background pieces for cards that were ultimately placed in the “drawer of unused card parts.” I love the look of Perfect Pearls but couldn’t come up with a design for an entire project. Sometimes just playing around with crafting supplies helps to put pieces of the project into place…just not in the right order! As I was browsing Pinterest a few days ago I saw a tag idea using a split wreath with the “from” message in the center. And bam, it hit me that this was the layout I wanted for the Scandinavian Christmas project, but using Perfect Pearls and the hexagon element from the set. I love that little spark of excitement when I finally put all the pieces together in my head and I can start actually working on the card physically. Check out the YouTube video for this card here.

I started with a piece of 4″ x 5″ black card stock. I placed a piece of tape horizontally across the center of the card stock as a mask and stamped the hexagon shape onto the paper over the tape using Versamark embossing ink and my Misti. I then applied silver embossing powder and heat set. I pulled off the tape and then placed the piece back into my Misti to stamp the sentiment in the center of the hexagon. Again I applied silver embossing powder and heat set. After the piece was cool I die cut the hexagon shape using the included die. Sentiment piece complete.

I decided to apply the Perfect Pearls directly to the front of the card base instead of using a separate front panel piece. I started by marking the center of the front panel and then lined up the die cut sentiment over this mark. I used a pencil to trace around the top and bottom of the hexagon to give myself a reference point for my stamping.

I placed the card base in my Misti, then I arranged the foliage stamps along the top of the traced hexagon shape, then picked up the stamps with the Misti door. I applied Perfect Medium to the stamps and stamped the images. I needed to use a few of the stamps again so I cleaned the stamps, removed all the stamps from the Misti and repositioned the ones I wanted to reuse as well as placing any additional foliage stamps. Thankfully this set has a lot of foliage stamps to choose from, including both left and right oriented stamps. When I was satisfied with the stamping I took the paper out of the Misti and placed it on a paper towel. This helps to keep the work surface clean while applying the Perfect Pearls powder. I applied the various colors of powder to my stamped images, varying the colors and keeping in mind that I wanted to use some pearl Pops of Color to represent berries on some of the stems. I applied the powder with the smaller brush that is included in the set, and then used the larger fluffy brush to brush off the excess powder. Perfect Pearls does have a sticky element in the powder that helps it to cling to the paper but you must use Perfect Medium to adhere the dry powder. ***See my additional thoughts below on Perfect Pearls***

I repeated these same steps for the bottom of the wreath. I flipped my card stock around 90 degrees in the Misti before stamping the bottom images. See the photo for reference. After removing all the excess powder I ran the card stock through two light mistings of water to fully set the powder. I then used a microfiber cloth to remove any lingering powder on the front panel AWAY from the stamping. I’ve still not had great success with rubbing directly over the powdered images with a cloth. I continue to use the clean fluffy brush to remove powder on the images. 

Next I stamped the small berry image several times on both the stop and bottom of the wreath, filling in any open gaps in the foliage. I applied copper embossing powder and heat set. NOTE! The berry stamp will look like a small clump of rocks if you over-ink or press too hard when stamping. I found that a light press is all that is required. 

Next I applied Pops of Color to the tips of the white branches. The last step was to pop up the sentiment with foam squares in the center of the card and the card was complete. Honestly the most difficult and time consuming part of the entire card is arranging the foliage stamps in a pattern that looks full and symmetrical. 

It has occurred to me that I’d like to post step-by-step photos on my blog posts so I will start doing that with the next card. Of course you can always check for the YouTube video link near the top of each blog post if you’d rather follow along on a video. 

I might create one additional Christmas card video/card in the next few days – I have an idea that can’t wait until 2023, so stay tuned!

Cheers!

Materials List:

• Honey Bee Stamps Farmhouse Tree Stencil
• Honey Bee Stamps Scandinavian Christmas Stamps and Dies set
• Lawn Fawn Just Stitching Double Rectangle die set (embosses only, does not cut a frame)
• 140# coldpress watercolor paper
• Hero Arts Hero Hues 111# Cardstock – Cranberry
• 100# Kraft Cardstock
• Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Oxide Inks – Rustic Wilderness, Faded Jeans, Aged Mahogany, Black Soot
• Twine
• Heart Embellishments
• Pops of Color – Pearl Satin
• Pearl Embellishments

I’m taking a little break from the inky night sky backgrounds to create a cute little farmhouse-y holiday card. The Honey Bee Stamps Farmhouse Tree Details stencil has been calling my name from the holiday stamps and dies bin for weeks now. And I’m super happy with the way this card (and all the other cards!) turned out. Yep, once I got started experimenting with the stencil and all the techniques for creating the inky layers it was very hard to call time. Here is the assortment of cards I created this weekend.

Normally when I am making cards for a video (see my YouTube video for this card here) I make a few and then decide which one “made the cut” for the video. I had a difficult time narrowing down the contestants this time. Ultimately all the other cards made a cameo appearance in the video because I fell in love with all of them. Here is how these cards were created, clockwise from top left.

Card #1: I wanted to use the star layers on the stencil so I went with an A7 card (5″ x 7″.) The tree layers were created with Distress Oxide Inks in Evergreen Bough and Pine Needles exactly as I show in the YouTube video that I linked above. Basically, just swatch some ink in a watercolor pan, spray on some water to create an inky watercolor concoction and start painting! The base layer is just the Evergreen Bough and the accent layer is Pine Needles. The base star layer is Distress Oxide in Fossilized Amber and the accent layer is Lawn Fawn Stencil Paste in Gold. I stenciled the wicker basket in with Aged Mahogany and then stenciled the accent layer on the basket with an off-white archival ink. I stenciled the dots and stars onto the tree with Picket Fence Studios Paper Glaze in Winter Snowfall. The sentiment is from Spellbinders Yana’s Christmas Sentiments foiling and die set. I used Spellbinders Bronze hot foil to foil the sentiment. All the cards panels were cut with Waffleflower A2 Layers dies and the double stitching on the front panel of cards 1, 3, 4 &5 was created using Lawn Fawn’s Just Stitching Double Rectangles dies.

Card #2: This card is basically the same as the card I created for the video with the exception of the embellishments. For the red berries in the garland I used the ball point of a ball stylus to stamp on the berries using Nuvo Glacier Paste in Haute Red. I also used the small pearl embellishments on the tree. The greeting is from the same Spellbinders set as in Card #1 and it is also foiled in bronze hot foil.

Card #3: This is the card from the YouTube video that I linked above. Briefly, the base layer of the tree is watercolor paper (4″ x 5 1/2″) on which I have painted the accent layer in Rustic Wilderness with a touch of Faded Jeans to deepen the green, and the burlap sack is Distress Oxide in Aged Mahogany with a touch of Black Soot to deepen the red. The embellishments on the tree are tiny hearts, tiny pearls and some drops of Pops of Color in Pearl Satin to mimic cranberry and popcorn garland. I adhered this watercolor paper layer to a Cranberry cardstock layer (4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″). The base cardstock is A2 Kraft cardstock, 100#. The little bow was created from jute (twine.) The greeting is from Honey Bee Stamps Scandinavian Christmas stamp and die set. It is stamped in Distress Oxide Aged Mahogany ink.

Card #4: This card is exactly the same as card #3 but I used a different sentiment from the Yana’s Christmas Sentiments. This is foiled with Bronze hot foil from Spellbinders. I used a tiny bit more Faded Jeans in the accent layer on the tree to deepen the green.

Card #5: For this card I decided to ink up the stencil with a blending brush and the same Distress Oxide inks as in card #3. For the accent layer I used the Altenew #5 blending brush (it is so small!) and it worked perfectly to pounce on the ink. The tree in this card is much more crisp and defined and it is a totally different look from the watercolor look of the other cards. I used Glossy Accents for the dots on the tree. Once this was dry I brushed on a tiny bit of Perfect Pearls in Gold to give the dots a little sparkle. I also decided to add a little snow to the bottom of the tree. Gina K Designs Glitz Glitter Gel was perfect for snow! Lastly I edged the tree panel with a small amount of Vintage Photo Distress Oxide to give the panel a bit of a rustic, vintage look. I love this card! Be sure to check out the video for all the details for card #3. I have at least one more holiday card coming up this week and then I will switch focus to a crafty mixed media gift project for my girls. I’ll create a post on this project after the holidays. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Cynthia