We Wish You Merry Christmas

Hey stampers, Anni here!

Do you go with traditional colours when you make Christmas cards? Or do you like to make different things beside green, red, silver and gold. I like both but I often tend to reach to untraditional colour combos making Christmas cards.

With this card I started colouring these super cute bears from Mama Elephant's Fuzzy Hugs and I had no idea in my mind what card I make with it. For the colouring I used coloured pencils, my favourite colouring medium. To cut out the image there are coodinating dies available.

Then I decided to go with a Christmas card with these sweet bears although you could send them to a friend who needs a hug or just sending warm winter wishes.

I created a background using Distress Oxide inks matching the colours I used for the hat and the pullover. I decided to use shades of reds and oranges although this could get creepy - I always can't stop thinking of blood when I have too much red on card. Is it just me?
I toned down the edges with a dark red to give the scene kind of a frame. When the ink blending was finished I added splashes of water and watered down white gesso to the background.

When the background was dry I cut it out using Lawn Fawn's Zig Zag Rectangle Stackables (they are on sale right now). I also cut a scrap of white cardstock with the same die and cut a snowy hill out of it. On that piece I stamped the sentiment that I found in Mama Elephant's Holiday Messages. All there was left to do was to assemble the card.

Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty weekend.
Anni

   

Simple Backgrounds for CAS Cards

Hello, Tallie here.

More often recently I am finding I am creating cards that move towards the CAS - clean and simple - style. Lots of white space, one layer and perhaps one central image. Sometimes, just adding a simple shaped background can frame your central image and create a focal point. Today, I used the Mama Elephant Fuzzy Hugs stamp set, two sentiment sets and my alcohol markers to create two different cards.

I started by stamping out the adorable central image of hugging bears in some MFT Extreme Black Ink onto some blending cardstock. I then stamped out the sentiment from the Sugar Pea Designs Everyday Sentiments Stamp Set, centred underneath the hugging bears.

I then took out my alcohol markers and coloured the image in.

To create the background, I drew around one of my heart dies that perfectly framed the image lightly in pencil (make sure it is lightly as the pencil will be trapped under the marker ink). I then selected three coordinating teal markers and coloured in the heart, keeping it darker at the bottom and lighter at the top.

A little light grey shading under their feet grounds the image nicely.

This design is versatile and can be adapted to any shape or stamp set. Here's another example using the Mama Elephant Fuzzy Hugs stamp set and the MFT Bitty Thanks & Gratitude Stamp set.

Thanks for reading, catch you next week.

Tallie