Ho, Ho, Ho - Merry Christmas!

Hey!

It's Bev here today. I am really getting into the Christmas spirit now and I have a trio of Christmas cards to share with you using the recently released Winter Stencil Strips from MFT.

I didn't think I would really get into using stencils, but they are really good fun and there are so many techniques you can use them with. Plus they are really good value too, especially this one at £5.50 and a choice of 4 designs in one!

For my first card today, I couldn't wait to try out the MFT Merry Christmas Blend stamp and give it a rainbow look! 

Choosing to stamp it in a rainbow of colours was quite time consuming and required some masking while inking up. But with the use of a stamping tool it was pretty easy and straight forward. I used Altenew inks in Ruby Red, Orange Cream, Fresh Lemon, Parrot, Ultramarine, Azurite & Ultraviolet.

After I had stamped the sentiment, I went and added the snowflake stencil in Altenew Silver Lake ink and added some sparkly liquid adhesive to the snowflake centres. With the stencil having four designs in one, you need to use a scrap piece of paper to mask the designs off that you don't want to ink!

Next I used the same snowflake design to create a lovely background using Altenew Dew Drop ink.

I added gloss white liquid adhesive to the snowflake centres and this time finished the design with a trio of snowflakes and the 'Let it Snow' banner sentiment from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages Stamp Set.

The sentiment and snowflakes are adhered to the card using foam adhesive so that they stand out from the background. I used Altenew Aqualicious and Teal Cave ink colours.

Lastly for today I have a super quick clean and simple card using the HO, HO, HO design on the stencil.

I used Altenew Ruby Red ink for the stencilling and I added the 'Believe' sentiment, also from Concord & 9th Mistletoe Messages stamped in VersaFine Onyx Black ink onto a scrap of white card & adhered using foam adhesive.

So much fun with one stencil and a couple of stamp sets. I hope I have inspired your Christmas card making a little. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Bev 

Altenew Ink colours used can be found HERE in the Seven Hills Crafts Store and all the colour families I have used are currently in stock :)

Lapis Lazuli 

Enchanted Garden

Gentlemans Gray

Sweet Dreams

Pocketful of Sunshine

Tropical Forest

Warm & Cozy

Red Cosmos

Bold Sentiments

Now if you know me, you know I love 3 things come Christmas card making - something fast to make, anything with a Christmas tree and big bold sentiments - so the new sentiment stamp in the shape of a Christmas tree that fills a whole card on its own from MFT had my name all over it!   I've got a couple of cards to share with it today.

For my first I have gone super simple - so if you wanted to knock out a load of these you can do them super quick!   I started with a piece of paper from the Simple Stories Country Christmas pad - a beautiful soft blue with hints of red which drove my inking choices.   I simply stamped it using Candied Apple Distress Oxide Ink and used stickles on the star and around it to add some shimmer!

For the second version I did a shadow stamping technique.  I stamped and embossed it first in copper embossing powder and then stamped on top and just to the left using pine distress oxide just over the words leaving the star just in copper.  I then buffed the green ink off the sentiment and gently smudged it around the shape to give a soft green hue in the shape of a tree.   I used stickles again to make the star shine.

Whilst I was playing with sentiments, I also wanted to play with the Merry Christmas Blend Stamps and Dies. 

For this one, I just made the sentiment the star.   If you had the birthday version and found it hard to line up the stamps and dies, then I have a few tips to share.   If you are going to die cut, I find it easier to die cut the shapes first, use a bit of repositionable glue to hold them to some scrap paper and then stamp on top.  That makes it easier to see where to put the letters - I found the other way around I kept cutting into the letters as I had them too far over or too far apart.   I popped it up on a few extra die cut layers and created a background using the Ho Ho Ho Background stamp.

Whilst I had the stamps out I thought I'd play around with some more ideas in contemporary colour schemes.  They are so big and bold they can easily be the focal point of a card on their own.

Here I stamped it in Picked Raspberry and Peacock Feathers on a piece of white card and then used the Lawn Fawn Door Die to cut a door from the middle of the sentiment.   This gives you the option to have a fun character peeking out from inside.

I used the cute little reindeer from MFT's Festive Friends stamp set and used the same colours but in pencils to tie the inside to the outside.

I did make one final card, as I wanted to use just the "Merry" so I could make a portrait card (Christmas is too wide to fit on a standard card in that orientation but would fit on a 5x7), however, the Elf is now out of stock - sorry - but it will be back as soon as we can get it and I wanted to show that you can ink up the stamps without the frames to get a "non-selfie" look from them.

That's all the inspiration I have to share today.   Hope it gives you a few ideas to have a go at.

 NEWS FROM THE STORE

We're working on adding the deliveries we've had this week so should have the following online later today or tomorrow:

• Hero Arts September Kit Add-Ons
• Altenew's latest stamp, die, stencil and washi tape releases

We also expect the following to be delivered this week:

• Concord and 9th latest release
• Mama Elephant will be in store on the 15th along with some restocks from last month, but some were out of stock so are expected to follow in a couple of weeks.
• Newton's Nook have a new release on Friday and fingers crossed that should be here by then too.

Catch you later

Tara