Jolly Holly Christmas cards.

I ummed and erred about buying this Jolly holly stamp set and die bundle, but I am so glad I did. I have had lots of fun playing with it this week.

I stamped off about 10 Santa s coloured them all in and then die cut them. 

Then I started working on some backgrounds.

 I stamped a few parcels on a piece of whisper white card stock and coloured them in.

Using foam pads I stuck Santa over the top of the parcels.

Actually  I stamped quite a few parcels on lots of pieces of white card and coloured them all in .

I varied the amount and the position of the of parcels for a slightly different look.

Once all the parcels were coloured I assembled the cards, some I mounted straight onto coloured card bases without a mount. 

Others I added a coloured mount then adhered the layers on to a white base card.


Then I began to wonder if the tree from the  Winter woods  stamp set would work with this Santa.

 Well... I think it does,    but  I also think this card looks incomplete. 

     I think it  needs a couple parcels at the base of the tree to complete it.

I will be adding some die cut parcels to this one at a later date.

As the card above looked incomplete to me, the next step was to stamp the tree and the parcels on the background.

I prefer this look but again I am not completely happy  with it.  
Perhaps it's because I have an even number of parcels on this one. Everyone knows odd numbers always looks better.

The next thing to try was more trees.
Again there should have only been three trees on this one, but my first tree was badly placed.

 I don't think this one turned out too bad despite my poor planning.



As you can see from the photo below I have had quite  a bit of use out of this  bundle already. 

The last card I made was one at the  top of this post. 
It's the one with the least amount of materials and  least amount of work. Surprisingly,... I  really this one,  I like it's  simplicity.

Spirited snowmen/ Winter woods

When I posted a photo of these guys on the S.U Demonstrator Planning  Page Little did I know that they were going to be so popular.

I am reeling from the response these cards have had.  I have had to spend a lot of today answering questions and responding to all the lovely comment left.

Last time I looked  they had 1, 700 likes in less than 12 hours!!

 That is truly amazing.

A few of the comments asked how I did the background for these snow people.

So this post is to share how I created these cards.

and to answer all those questions.

The snow people are from the spirited snowmen stamp set by Stampin' up.  It is available now and can be found in this year's autumn winter catalogue.

I used the stamparatus positioning tool , Black  Mememto ink,  whisper white card stock and Copic markers.

 I began by stamping the snow couple in black on white card and again on a post it note, making sure I stamped on the adhesive edge of the post it.

 I cut out the post it  note image, (this is the mask.)  When cutting out the mask,  cut to inside the line rather than on or outside the line.  You need the mask to be slightly smaller to avoid getting a white halo around the snowmen when you over stamp.

I placed the mask over the snowmen.

Then I  positioned the trees stamp from  The Winter Woods stamp set to the left  of and over the  masked off snowmen. I picked up the stamp with the plate of the Stampartus, and then inked the stamp up with granite grey ink and stamped the image.

Then I moved the stamp to right and stamped the other side. 

This is actually quicker to do with the tree stamp  mounted on a block rather than the stamparatus plate.

That's all the stamping done.,,,, Now to colour.

I am a huge fan of Copic markers, I have been collecting them and the refills for many years. They are my preferred colouring medium.

To colour this image,  I used the lightest colour of my 3 markers, then I

 decided where my horizon was going to be  and completely covered the sky area ink. I drew some broad lines under the trees,  under the snowmen and anywhere else I felt needed a streak of colour.

The next marker is slightly darker than the first. 

I added the darker shade to the top corners and worked towards  the middle and down the sides. 

I also drew thinner/ shorter  lines over the pale lines and blended them in slightly using my first colour.

With the darkest marker I added a fine line of ink at the top of each streak of colour for more depth.  Going back to the first marker I blended in some of the harder lines. 

The image above I am trying out in three shades of grey with a little yellow in the sky.
The pine tree in the picture below is also in the Winter Woods set. I stamped this three times in handsome hunter ink and then added snow with a white gel pen.


I also used the white gel pen to draw in the falling snow.
I used a Japanese hole punch with a small tip to cut out these tiny glittery circles.
They were a bit fiddly to stick on the tree as they are so very small.

I hope this post has answered the questions asked and I hope it all makes sense.
 I would also like to say a big THANK YOU to you if you left a comment or a like on these cards on D/P FB page .
I'm rather tired and my bed is calling me and I have an early start tomorrow.