Well, well, well...
December certainly has come around quickly.
With it being the first Friday of a new month, we have a brand-new elemental inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.
There were several elements for this image that sent me down a rabbit hole of Christmas cardmaking, and I made 8 similar cards in total (apologies for the less than perfect photos, but the light has been a real challenge this week).
The elements that inspired me were the winter foliage/florals, a round element (wood slice in my case), and a sentiment in black ink:
Paper and stickers: Crate Paper - Peppermint Collection (r), Basic Grey - Jovial (r), Echo Park - Everybody Loves Christmas (r)
Stamps: Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas, The Greetery - Merry Sprigs
Dies: The Greetery - Merry Sprigs, Hello Bluebird - Holly and Pine, MFT - Fishtail Flags STAX (r), Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Mini Holiday Greens, The Greetery - Wood Slices, WPlus9 - Under the Mistletoe
My little crafting Odyssey started out with me stamping each of the eight floral elements in the Merry Sprigs set from The Greetery in various shades of ink, using Fern, Forest, and Greenery ink from The Stamp Market for the leafy elements and the various other shades listed for the berries and florals. Must say Altenew Morning Frost is a great shade for "white" when stamping on white cardstock. :)
When all the florals were dry, I added clear Novo drop details to the berries and flower elements.
I had some great papers in some older collections that would work with these florals without hogging the limelight. I always love a bit diagonal pink/red and white stripe this time of year:
There was even some old Basic Grey paper among my snippets that worked well with the warmer green and red tones:
But back the proces... I cut lots of foliage from the Sizzix and Hello Bluebird sets listed above, using Forest cardstock from The Stamp Market for the warmer pine look.
And Jade cardstock for the cooler pine tones.
Before my big assembly session started, I matched up the greenery to the florals I wanted to use, then got to work creating the Wood Slices.
I cut the wood slices from brown and beige cardstock in my scraps folder, then blended the inner slice with Pizza Crust and Doe ink from Lawn Fawn.
I then added the foliage elements to the wood slices, and put the assembled slices in my Splat box to give them a splattering of white paint.
Once the slices were dry, I adhered the floral elements and finished them off with a red bow from an old set of dies from WPlus9 - it was just the right shape and size for this purpose. I love it when old purchases get a new lease of life like this.
With all eight wood slices assembled, it was now a matter of time of working out what to do with them.
Enter the very vintage collection of Christmas papers I have.
I needed something neutral that would allow the florals to pop.
Well, there was a sheet of paper in the Peppermint Collection from Crate Paper that went perfectly with the jade and fern tones of the foliage. Thankfully, I had enough of this blue paper to cover six card bases and found some Basic Grey and Echo Park offcuts in my stash that would work for the remaining two cards.
The white and pink fishtails are also cut from old Crate Paper festive collections.
I stamped each one with the sentiment from Hello Bluebird's Typed Christmas set and assembled the cards using snippets of scrap cardstock to add dimension rather than foam squares.
The cards looked nice but were missing a little contrast - so I cut a strip of this October Afternoon striped paper also in my stash to finish off the top edge of the cards, adding a border sticker where needed to cover a join, and a strip of the blue paper to finish off the pink card.
And there we go, all cards complete.
They really are much prettier in real life - the colours pop so nicely against those papers.
I love it when "assembly" style card production isn't a fiddly chore. I easily get bored when it is and just want to get everything finished.
But a clean and simple design like this one was quick to complete over a few evenings.
Make sure you check out the wonderful projects from the rest of the design team here, and play along if you can!
Happy crafting!
 Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas stamps Shop at: MISC |
 The Greetery - Merry Sprigs stamps Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG |
 The Greetery - Merry Sprigs dies Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG |
 Hello Bluebird - Holly and Pine dies Shop at: MISC |
 MFT - Fishtail Flags STAX dies (r) Shop at: MISC |
 Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Mini Holiday Greens dies Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC |
 The Greetery - Wood Slices dies Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG |
 WPlus9 - Under the Mistletoe dies Shop at: MISC |
 Altenew - Morning Frost dye ink Shop at: MISC |
 Lawn Fawn - Black Licorice ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK) |
 Lawn Fawn - Blue Jay ink pad Shop at: SHC (UK) |
 Lawn Fawn - Doe ink pad Shop at: SHC (UK) |
 Lawn Fawn - Pizza Crust ink pad Shop at: SHC (UK) |
 The Stamp Market - Cherry Kisses ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Cotton Candy ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Fern ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Forest ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Greenery ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Lipstick Red ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Papaya ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Peony ink pad Shop at: MISC |
 Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC |
 Altenew - Warm Gray ink cube set Shop at: MISC | SHC (UK) |
 Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Forest cardstock Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Jade cardstock Shop at: MISC |
 The Stamp Market - Lipstick Red cardstock Shop at: MISC |
 Dr. Pj. Martin's Bleed Proof White watercolour Shop at: AZ (UK) |
 Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Drops - Morning Dew (clear) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SHC (UK) |
 Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC |
 Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK) |
 MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC |
 Craft blending brushes Shop at: AZ (UK) |
 Taylored Expressions - Blender Brushes Shop at: MISC |
 Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC |
 Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous Splat Box Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC | SHC (UK) |
 Waffle Flower - Mini Media Mat Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK) |
 Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC |
 Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC |
 Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC |
 Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC |
 Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC |
 Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC |
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