A Merry and Bright Christmas Card

Hello everyone!  So glad you stopped by.  I have one more Christmas card to share with you today.  I used a couple of beautiful stamps from Just for Fun, along with great products from Altered Pages, and I absolutely love how this turned out.

Stamp Holly Background with Olive ink onto white card stock  Color with watercolor markers in green and blue.  Add Love Letter Pico Embellisher to each berry and set aside to dry.  Stamp  Large Cardinal and just the wing onto white card stock with Black StazOn and color with Copic markers.

Mix a sliver of Butterscotch and Chocolate gelatos into an Ultra Fine Mist Sprayer and shake well.  I have no recipe, I just added enough to get to the color intensity I wanted, which does not take very much.

Spritz over holly background to give it a bit more vintage look, and tone down the white background.  (NOTE:  Because I used water based inks, some of it will run, but be ready with your heat gun to gently heat set it and you will get this cool, shabby look.)

Trim papers as follows: Holly Background to 3-3/4" x 4-3/4", green stripe to 4" x 5-1/2", and green print to 4" x 5".   Trim strip of red polka dot paper to match scalloped edge of kraft card.  Edge each layer with Leather Mix'd Media ink pad and blending tool.  Adhere all pieces to card front, as shown.

Fussy cut the cardinal and wing, then use Faber-Castell Black Big Brush Pen to edge the images.  Shape bird and wing with a large ball stylus tool and fun foam to give it shape.  Adhere to card front with Adhesive dimensionals.

 Cut up holly leaves so you can shape them your way.

Adhere "Merry and Bright" giant rhinestone to lower right with cut up pieces of holly leaves.

Adhere holly leaves and a dew drop to upper left, as shown.  Add animal eye sticker to bird.

Isn't this a good looking card?  I love how dimensional the cardinal looks against that fabulous holly background from Just for Fun.  And what a great way to use up scraps of your Glitz papers to piece together this beautiful background.

But wait, there's more!  Check out the inside.  I simply resized and printed the "Merry Christmas" image to fit on a card insert that you can slip inside, giving you a nice place to sign it or write a note.  These are always good to use if you have used a dark color, or paper that does not show your writing well.  Print up a bunch and you have ready-made sentiments to place inside your handmade cards!

Supplies:  Altered Pages:  Bazzill Kraft envelopes with cards;  Glitz Joyeaux Noel paper pad;  Mini Images Christmas collage sheet; Black and White Christmas collage sheet 1/4" Scor-tape; Adhesive dimensionals; gel medium; Ranger blending tool; Leather Mix'd Media ink pad; Faber-Castell Black Big Brush Pen; Gelatos Neutral Color Pack; Ultra Fine Mist Sprayer; Flame Dew Drops; Glitz Hello December Giant Rhinestones; Bazzill Paper Flowers (Holly leaves); Black StazOn; Memento Olive ink
Just for Fun Stamps:  Holly Background; Large Cardinal
IMAGINE Crafts Irresistible Love Letter Pico Embellisher
Watercolor markers (green, blue)
Copic Markers (R37, R39, Y17, E
Animal eyes

Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to visit often for more inspiration from the team, as well as finding great products to use in all your crafts!

Have a wonderful and very Merry Christmas!  

Barbara