Christmas Ornament Week: Snow Front

Simple and quick - just a few stamped images on a slice of log, finished off with some white embossing paste and a ribbon. Makes a lovely woodland-themed Christmas ornaments or a posh gift tag they can hang on their tree!

When stamping directly onto wood, use bright colours as the background will darken them. For example, I used Old Olive rather than Mossy Meadow and Real Red rather than Cherry Cobbler. 

 

Snow Front Christmas woodland scene

This is one of the ones that got away when I was designing a project for a Make & Take recently. I like to keep things really simple for Make & Takes – particularly when there are lots of people at the party – so this one didn’t quite cut the mustard.

It uses some Christmastime is Here products – specifically the Designer Series Paper, Gold Enamel Dots and Gold Shimmer Ribbon – but these are now only available while supplies last, so do check before setting your heart on any of these. In fact, the same goes for any products from the Autumn/Winter catalogue, apart from carryover items. If you’re not sure, just check with me, or your own demonstrator.

Repeat the stamping of the trees without re-inking your stamp to get a paler effect which looks more natural.

Quick and easy Christmas card with Peaceful Boughs and Nature's Beauty

Even though I still need to make a few more Christmas cards, I'm not stressing about it... because I know the Stamparatus will come to the rescue. Armed with this amazing tool and some Whisper White Notecards, I know I can produce another batch of these cards in next to no time. The longest part of making these was the colouring of the fox!

Place your card in the Stamparatus upside down so you can allow your stamped image to bleed off the edge. It doesn't matter which way up you are stamping when you use the Stamparatus, as you’ve already done the positioning. 

Simple stamping with Peaceful Boughs - and a touch of metallic glamour

Handmade cards don’t have to be product-heavy or complicated... especially at Christmas when you might need dozens of them!

This is a really simple card to create - and would be even quicker if you used the Stamparatus for bulk making.

A touch of copper really lifts this card - and mixing your metallics is all the rage! This design would work just as well with the gold foil-edged cards and with any of the new metallic ink pads.

Simple Stamping onto gold foil-edged cards

I don't know about you but when Christmas gets closer and that dreaded final posting date looms, I no longer have time for fancy craft projects? I know that's a way off yet but I like to inspire my customers to make #simplestamping projects such as this one, which I made with my Cuppa & Card ladies this month. The foil-edged cards do a lot of the work for you!

Yes, I confess I used dies to make my sample but you could easily cut them out with scissors - and, in fact, that’s just what we did at the Cuppa & Card sessions.

 Because the border is a shiny foil surface, you're probably safe to stamp onto it and it should wipe off but, to be on the safe side, we masked the border with a sticky note before stamping the bough. 
 

Peaceful Boughs in metallics and white

 
Waste not, want not... here's the missing piece from the pizza box lid, refashioned into a layer for a co-ordinating card.

I made two versions of this card for my class as I know some of hte ladies prefer stamping to standing up to use the Big Shot, but I confess I like the Tin Tile Background version more; I just love the look of that embossing folder.

To get this look with the metallic thread, lay a piece of double-sided tape on your project then fold the thread around in a figure of 8 fashion. When there's enough, seal it on top with another piece of tape and cover it up with your top layer. 

Peaceful Boughs Christmas ornament in gold pizza box

I do love a woodland theme... and particularly a woodland-themed Christmas ornament, so it wouldn't be the festive season without one of these making its way into my craft classes!

I bought some MDF hearts from eBay, painted them white and then set to crafting by stamping them with the Birch Background stamp and Peaceful Boughs.

I embossed the boughs with clear embossing powder on top of the Mossy Meadow (hurrah for the Stamparatus!) and, because the Crumb Cake Birch image still wasn't quite dry that picked up some of the powder, too. I call this a happy accident! There's even a hint of glitter!

The box is die-cut (look out for the missing piece coming soon!) and given a window sheet insert which is stamped in Whisper White ink and heat set, then we wrapped our ornaments in stamped black tissue paper ready to give as a lovely handcrafted gift.

I don't like glitter because it can end up in our oceans but still have quite a bit left so I now only use it when mixed with glue or embossing powder. Here I mixed it with the clear embossing powder to stop it from going astray. It adds a touch of glitz to an otherwise quite understated project. 
 

Simple Stamping with Peaceful Boughs

You don't need a lot of products to get started in stamping... something which I think we forget at times!

The card on the left just uses stamps, three ink pads and a Whisper White notecard, and yet it's still lovely (although I say so myself).

For the card on the right, I stepped things up a little with some extra stamping, some gold embellishments from the new Christmastime is Here Suite and some subtle copper stamping.

Simple stamping can be as simple as you like! My tip when bulk making is to start simple and then only add the extras if you still have time.

Christmas blues with Peaceful Boughs

Got the Christmas blues already? Even though I'm a bit of a traditionalist and usually favour red and green for my Christmas projects, I do like this combo of Blueberry Bushel, Real Red and Whisper White, with a splash of silver. I used Stazon to stamp onto the silver foil because it's a permanent ink which dries quickly.

Using the Stamparatus for embossing is a real game-changer. It means you can ink the stamp more than once and stamp repeatedly to get more ink on the page before embossing. I always “double up” when embossing in white; I use White Craft ink AND White embossing powder to get a really crisp and clear look.  

#Simplestamping for Christmas with Peaceful Boughs

Peaceful Boughs has definitely become my go-to stamp set for Christmas projects.

We used it at my Crafty Friday session last week to make this beautiful shaker dome pizza box but it's just as good for simpler projects such as this one. This would be a great design for mass producing Christmas cards as it's just one layer, stamped, with some ribbon around it, stuck onto a pre-cut foil-edged card. Quick and easy, but pretty effective.

If you want to create the one-layer look, use a fairly pale green ink for the boughs; I've used Pear Pizzazz here with Soft Suede pine cones stamped on top. I've tried all of the darker greens and the pine cones don't stand out enough. 
 

Pizza box with shaker dome lid

Let's start the week off with an over-the-top, complicated project, shall we? Actually it's not as complicated as it first appears; it's just that I've overstuffed my dome and didn't have enough pizza boxes to make another one.

In fact, the hardest part of this project was cutting out the dome shape from the lid of the pizza box as you have to get through quite a lot of layers and the inside of the box has a plastic coating to make it food safe. Once that was done, it was just a case of assembling the pieces in the right order.

When die-cutting foil, you need either a really unblemished cutting plat on top, or a piece of scrap paper to protect it. Otherwise you will get imprints from the plate in the delicate foil surface. 

 

Peaceful Boughs with Feels Like Frost

The fact that I have pine cones in every project photo should give you a clue that I love woodlands... which is why Peaceful Boughs was the first stamp set to go on my shopping list when I saw the Autumn/Winter catalogue back in August.

I’ve patiently held off with the set until now as I know my customers’ enthusiasm for Christmas projects doesn’t start quite as early as mine, but this is my stamp set of the month for October so there's no more holding back!

I’ve been creating lots of projects with this beautiful bundle. I can’t show many just yet as they are for classes and events to be held this month but this is one that didn’t make the cut. I’ve used the gorgeous Feels Like Frost Designer Series Paper (every sheet has a silver foil design on the reverse) and the new Hammered Metal 3D Embossing Folder, too.

When using embossing paste, be aware that it soaks up any ink beneath it. One way to reduce this is to apply a thin layer first and allow it to dry before applying thicker paste on top. 
 

Beautiful Boughs Christmas star decoration

Feeling festive yet? Is it wrong that I have this Christmas star decoration hanging up already? I promise I'll take it down soon, ready to come out again at a more respectable time.

I made this at the weekend using the Peaceful Boughs bundle and have to say I love it. I have precisely five of these stars left which is just enough for a small, friendly class which I'll be holding in December.

The link to register will be going out in my newsletter tomorrow so make sure you're on the list if you want to join me!

Stamping the star with the Birch Background stamp was easy because the die-cut pine sprigs cover the joins. I just made sure I kept the stamp level, and turned it 180º occasionally. It was one of the very rare occasions that I used a clear block with a background stamp; normally I just leave it in the box and apply paper to stamp.

Beautiful sponged landscape card with Snow Front

This new Snow Front stamp set looks set to be as popular as Waterfront, especially if you love stamping. I know that sounds silly; we all love stamping, right? But we all love different aspects – some love fussy cutting, some love assembling projects, some love colouring, and some love the act of stamping with lots of images to build up a scene. This stamp set is for those who fall into the last category.

I totally CASEd these projects from Aussie demonstrator Linda Dalke, when I saw her beautiful projects online. Check out her video tutorial here, although I confess I didn't find the video until after I'd made my projects so may have used a different method.

I always try to build in a slight variation when CASEing... this time I made one version without the sponging (stark and clean, and considerably quicker!) and a landscape version, too. I think I still prefer the original, though!

This amazing effect doesn't require any special tools; just an ink pad, sponge and paintbrush (you could even use your fingers instead of a paintbrush!). 

Sponge your background then simply flick water on top by holding a wet paintbrush horizontally over the cardstock and tapping the top. Allow the droplets to soak in for a few seconds then dab them dry with kitchen roll (tissue paper). 

When sponging – and I know I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating – start OFF the project on the grid paper and work in circles, gradually working towards the project so you don't go straight in with dark ink which can look blotchy.