Christmas is my favourite occasion to create cards for – by a long shot.  I LOVE it – I love everything about the festive season.  That’s why I was a bit disappointed with myself for only managing to make 14 cards to send out this year rather than the usual 100 or so I make each year.  I’m not sure what happened – I guess I just ran out of time!  Anyhoo, I was perusing Instagram and saw that three of my crafting chums, Jenn Shurkus, Chari Moss and Cheiron Brandon had decided to challenge each other to create a Christmas card every month for the next 12 months (I’ve missed January obviously) so that they have a chance to build up some cards before the big panic in November!  I thought this was exactly what I needed to give me the inspiration to get going early so I’ve jumped on the train and am joining in too!  So every THIRD THURSDAY of the month we’ll be sharing some festive inspiration – just what we all need I think!

#getcrackingonchristmas

I have so many Christmas stamps that I’ve never had a chance to use so this is great for getting them dusted off and given some love!  Here’s what I’ve come up with this month.  All stamps and dies are from Concord and 9th.  I loved their holiday release last year but this is the first time I’ve used any of it!

Supplies used:

Magnolia Wreath Stamp Set

Magnolia Wreath Die Collection

Season of Cheer Dies

Plaid Background Stamp

Hello Avery Elle fans!   I’m SO EXCITED to be up on the Avery Elle Blog today sharing a couple of cards I’ve created using the Spring Bouquet clear stamps and dies.  I know I’m probably biased because it’s a set I designed but I LOVE playing with it!  It particularly lends itself (as do all our other floral sets) to our brand new Liquid Watercolours.  These come in 10 delicious colours and here I’ve used a few of my favourites (Cherry, Fizz and Mimosa).

Both cards use the same main supplies and are just variations of each other.  Both start off as blank 41/4″ x 51/2″ white cards with Worn Lipstick and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide inks (on the pink version) and Wild Honey Distress Oxide ink blended on the orange one.

I used the brand new Polka Plate die but added a twist by using two of the circle dies from the Burst Elle-ments to die cut an aperture and circle frame.  I pieced the “frame” which I cut from another piece of white card into the negative space and adhered the die cut to the card front.

I stamped all the flower elements onto water colour cardstock using Versamark ink then heat embossed them using Avery Elle fine white embossing powder.  My preferred method for watercolouring heat embossed images is to cover the area with clean water to saturate the paper then pick up the colour and drop it onto the wetted paper.  This allows the paint to flow freely and naturally but you can also fiddle with it to get it looking exactly how you want it.   For the pink lilies I used Cherry Liquid Watercolour and for the orange lilies I used a combination of Mimosa, Fizz and Cherry.  They mix beautifully and a tiny amount really does go a long way.

Supplies:

Spring Bouquet Clear Stamps

Spring Bouquet Elle-ments

Polka Plate Elle-ments

Burst Elle-ments

Liquid Water Color Cherry

Liquid Water Colour Fizz

Liquid Water Color Mimosa

Fog Dye Ink

Pure White Embossing Powder