SSS Holly Jolly

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Today I'm sharing some cards created using my Holly Jolly stamp set. The set features this large sentiment which is created with three different stamps. There are also several secondary sentiments. 

For the first card, I stamped each layer with a different color: Watermelon for the primary sentiment, and Marine and Cherry for the shadow layers. Once the stamping was done, the sentiment was die cut with the coordinating die.

I wanted a really soft and subtle background, so I pulled out the Tim Holtz Twinkle Layering stencil, and very very lightly inked it over a white panel with a bit of Watermelon and Marine.

The sentiment was popped up with foam tape, and I added a few Pastel Ice embellishments for some sparkle.

Next, a very clean and simple look. This time I stamped the primary sentiment with Pine, and used Sprout for both of the shadow images.

The secondary sentiment, also from the Holly Jolly set, was gold embossed, and I added a Matte Gold mat to give it a little extra something.

My last card has a very different feel. This time the primary sentiment was stamped with Dublin, and the shadow layers with Spring and Lucky, and then die cut. I stamped the secondary sentiments with Versa Clair black and die cut them as well.

For the background, I pulled out the Christmas Wreath stencil, semi-carefully (and lightly) inking it with Dublin and Watermelon.

I added a mint mat and popped the sentiment pieces up with foam tape.

I love that this set works just as well for bold and modern looks as well as soft and pretty ones!

SSS, Poinsettia Cover

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Today I'm working with my Poinsettia Cover. This is another great cover for mass production because you can mix and match colors, and the pieces are large and very easy to assemble. 

I love using metallics for Christmas cards, so I pulled out a bunch of my metallic Matte cardstocks. I due cut the cover plate from Gold, Silver, and Champagne. For this first card, I used Silver as the base, Gold for the leaves and dots, and Champagne for the petals.

the sentiment, from my Holiday Messages set, was gold embossed on Matte Silver, and die cut. The secondary sentiment, also from Holiday Messages, was gold embossed directly on the Silver base, and then I popped the die cut sentiment up with foam tape.

For the next card, I used the Matte Champagne piece as the base and then inlaid all of the Silver pieces.

I used my Joyful dies for the sentiment. The shadow piece that comes with the Joyful die is much wider, but I wanted a more streamline feel, so I used the coordinating die for the stamp set as the shadow piece and popped the completed sentiment up with foam tape.

I also added a few Cottontail embellishments to complete the card.

The previous two cards were a little more subtle and elegant, but I wanted this next card to be bolder, so I die cut the cover from a piece of Matte Red cardstock.  This time, I used Gold for the base, red for the petals, Champagne for the leaves, and then die cut a few extra Silver dots.

The joy die was cut from Matte Red with a Matte Gold shadow piece, and was then popped up with foam tape.

For my last card, I thought I would do something completely different, and go with a more rustic feel.

The cover was die cut from Kraft, and then I inked up all the die cut pieces using blending brushes.

I tried to keep the inking relatively light, because I wanted to preserve the kraft look. The petals were inked with Watermelon, the leaves with Fairway, and the dots with Honey.

The sentiments, from the Holiday Messages set, were inked with Lisa Horton Solid Gold ink.

Hope this gives you some good ideas for how to use this die. I can't believe it's almost time to send these out!

SSS Happy / Merry Mashup

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Super  quick card to share today featuring a mashup of my Happy cover with the Merry stamp set that coordinates with the Merry Coverr.

I love that I was able to sneak in the Festivus sentiment on the Merry stamp set.  If you're a Seinfeld aficionado, you'll know what this is all about (Season 9, Episode 10 in case you want to check it out).

I found this completed Happy cover panel when I was cleaning up a couple weeks ago.  I knew I had created another Happy panel, but my space is aways such a mess that things go missing with regularity.  The panel was created using a webbing piece cut from Matte Silver cardstock, and a panel of Holographic Rainbows cardstock which was inlaid into the silver webbing.

The Festivus sentiment was embossed in silver.

Really quick and easy.  Now I just have to figure out which friend gets to be the lucky recipient of a Festivus card.

SSS Retro Wreath

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Today I'ms sharing several cards featuring my Retro Wreath suite of products.  These include a stamp set, coordinating dies, and stencil set.

For this first card, I started by inking up three of the four stencils with Bubblegum, Peony, and Rose inks.  This was done on a panel of very subtle patterned paper.  I spread Cookie Dough Lunar Paste through the final stencil.

Once the panel was dry, the sentiment, from the stamp set, was stamped with Versa Clair black ink.

To compete the look, I added a smattering of embellishments from the Pastel Ice mix with Micro Dots.

For the next card, I again started with a panel of patterned paper.  The stamp set was stamped with Versa Clair black ink, and then I added color. using the stencils and Limelicious, Pearfection, Field, and Raindrop inks.

The bow was stamped on the same patterned paper, colored with Copics (R22, R24, and R29), and fussy cut.  I opted not to use the coordinating die because I wanted a very clean look without the shadow that die cutting adds.

Finally, the two sentiments from the Retro Wreath stamp set were stamped with Versa Clair black.

For the next card, I inked the stencils up with Fairway, Lucky, Sprout, and Limelicious on a panel of white cardstock. The completed wreath was then die cut with the coordinating die. The ribbon was stamped with red ink, colored with the same Copics I used for the previous card, and then die cut.

The sentiment was white embossed on a brown cardstock panel.  To add a little interest to the background, masked off the sentiment, and then stamped the panel using an older woodgrain stamp using Mocha ink.  The edges of that panel were also inked with Mocha to create a bit of a glow.

The die cut pieces were popped up over the background with foam tape.

You'll notice that the stamp set includes some non-holiday sentiments as this wreath doubles as a sun.

For my last card, I inked the stencils up with Lemonade, Butter, Zest, and Citrine on a panel of white cardstock. I thought the white was a bit too stark, so I used the remaining ink on my blending brush to add a bit of color to the white spaces.

I then decided that the sun needed a bit more definition, so I very lightly inked the outside edges of the large image with Latte ink, and stamped it slightly offset from the stenciled image.

The sentiment was stamped with Versa Clair black ink,  and after covering the sentiment up to protect it, I added a bit of gold splatter using my Kuretake Starry Colors watercolors.

Hope this gave you a few ideas on how to use these new products!

SSS Merry Cover

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Today I'm working with my Merry Cover products. I designed a similar Happy cover earlier in the year, which folks really seemed to like, so I thought a holiday version was in order.

Mass producing cards isn't always my favorite thing because I get bored making the same thing over and over. This cover plate is perfect for combating that because you can mix and match pieces between cards to create a lot of 'same but different' cards.

For the first card, I die cut the cover from Red Matte, white, and a panel of Color Blend cardstock.  The red outline/webbing was inlaid with the white cardstock letters and the Color Blend background.

The secondary sentiment is from the coordinating Merry stamp set, and was embossed in white.

For the next card, I used the white cardstock outline/webbing from my previous card, and inlaid the Red Matte letters from that card.  I also die cut the cover from a panel of green cardstock which was used for the background.

I again embosssed the secondary sentiment from the coordinating Merry set in white.

For the final card, I die cut a panel of white and another Color Blend panel.  The white webbing piece was used as the base for inlay.  This time I inlaid both the letters and background from the Color Blend panel.

I again white embossed some sentiments from the coordinating Merry set, this time on black cardstock.  Those sentiments were then cut out and popped up with foam tape to create a composite sentiment.

You can mix and match pieces from this die endlessly to create multiple cards with slightly different looks, and the inlay is so easy with this cover because the pieces are on the larger side.

That's all for me today, lots more inspiration coming this week!

SSS Frosty Tree Gathering

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The Frosty Tree Gathering die has a retro bubble Christmas type feel to it, and I wanted to play up that feel with this card.

I started by inking up a panel of cardstock with Taffy and Sweets ink.

The Frosty Tree Gathering die was then cut twice from white cardstock. These were adhered to the inked panel, and the excess portions were trimmed off.

I then added Mercury Glass Stickles Glitter Glue to the bottoms of the tree boughs. To amp up the sparkle, I sprinkled some Prisma Glitter over the Stickles while they were drying.

Once the Stickles were dry, the sentiment, from Stacked Holiday Sentiments, was stamped with Versa Clair black ink, and I added a few sequins from the Pastel Ice sentiment mix.

That's all for today, thanks for visiting!

SSS Stacked Holiday Sentiments

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Hi friends, today I'm sharing a couple cards featuring my new sentiment set, Stacked Holiday Sentiments. The set contains six sentiments that are perfect for winter/holiday cards. I pulled out some of my favorite older stencils for these cards.

This first card features my Village stencils. There are four stencils that create the buildings, and a fifth that adds the windows. I used Morning, Sky, and Dusk for the building stencils, inking Morning twice, more heavily the second time.  Flannel was used for the windows.

The sentiment was then stamped with Versa Clair black ink.

This next card features a retired stencil set which was inked with Morning and Sky. Both were used twice for the buildings, once for the building itself, and a second time for the windows. There is also a star layer, and I used the excess ink on the blending brush to very light link those up.

The sentiment was again stamped with Versa Clair black ink.

These came together very quickly, and nice and flat for mailing.