Christmas in June with My Own Stamps

Morning, I just wanted to remind you all that tonight is the Brand New Launch of Leonie Pujol's Stamps and Die collections on Hochanda at 8pm. The collections are stunning and really not to be missed, I will be sharing some of my designs this evening on my blog. This is the card I am sharing today and there is a story behind it which I will explain.

Every year I say that I am going to make a few Christmas cards each month so when I get to December, I have a head start and every year I don't. This year was no exception until I spoke to Dawn a little while ago.

Dawn makes a few cards each month and has a nice little stash by the time it arrives.I answered her saying, well I will definitely do it next year. To which she replied why not now. Well it got me thinking and she was right why not now, so here we go.

Don't worry this is a one off Christmas post for now. I decided that I would make some Christmas stamps to help me get ahead. With the exception of the Sentiment on the tag I drew and made the stamps that made this card.

I designed and drew the topper which is one stamp and 4 different snowflakes and proceeded to make the stamps, with my stampmaker.

For the background I stamped my snowflakes with versamark ink and embossed them with white and 2 different blue fine detail embossing powders. I did each colour individually. Then taking Summer Sky Adirondack and Weathered Wood Distress ink I blended the colour onto the background keeping it darker around the edges.

I cut my tag from white card with a tag die and then cut the next size up in Dark Blue for my mat. I stamped the sentiment using Paris Dusk Memento ink. I then added my snowflakes and embossed them as before.

I stamped my main image stamp with Tuxedo Black Memento, then masked it off with some copier paper and Crafters Companions Stick n Spray (Temporary Adhesive) I then die cut this leaving a nice border around it and also cut the mat for this in Dark Blue card.I added the snowflakes around my masked image and embossed as for the background. The using the same inks I blended from the edges keeping it darker at the edge. I then coloured my image with a selection of alcohol markers and mounted my design onto the mat.

To finish off my design, I added some Metallic Gold Flowersoft for the tinsel on the Christmas Tree and some Glossy Accents on the baubles. I used 3D glue gel to attach the topper to my background card. I then punched a hole in my tag, threaded some red cord through it and secured it to the background using 3D glue gel.

Obviously this first one took a bit of time as I was making drawings and stamps for a lot of the afternoon. But now this stamp should help me get ahead with my simple Christmas cards at least.

I really hope you have enjoyed this post. Don't forget to come back later to see the samples I have made with Leonie's new collections.Take care and bye for now.xx