Well, after a few years of good intentions ending up going to wall because of other committments, I actually managed to make all my Christmas cards for this year. So, I thought I’d share my makes with you and the materials I used to make them. The secret, I quickly realised, is to keep things simple. I also discovered how fab and quick stencils and stamps can be, especially if you have a stamp press ( I used the Tim Holtz one, though not perfect when combining different brands of stamps, it was accurate and fast). I made the mistake of die cutting sentiments on some of them, but next year, I have resolved to use just stamps, stencils and punches. It becomes a bit brain numbing cutting the same sentiment/card front out 50 plus times. It’s worth considering whether or not you will be posting or hand delivering your cards when choosing your design elements if you want to avoid the extra cost of large letter postage. I enjoyed getting the chance to use previously unused items from my stash and gained the knowledge and experience to do some savvy shopping for next years batches. An added bonus to hand made cards meant that my inserts were all printed and so saved me handwriting over a hundred cards, Happy Christmas.
Design 1
6 x 6 cards made using ‘That Special Touch’ snowflake mask, Various shades of blue distress inks, Xcut snow flake punch, Silver stars table confetti and sentiments cut using Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 16PK – Holiday Words 2: Script by Tim Holtz 660977
Design 2
6×6 cards made using Stamps Away Patchwork Template set One, Memory Box – A6 Stencil – Script Merry and various dies to embellish including Tattered Lace Let It Snow (D447), Tattered Lace Leaping Reindeer die, Ultimate Carfts Snowball die, and snow flakes from Hunkydory Christmas boxed kit (for cards going in the post). I embellished some cards with Christmas tree ornaments (for hand delivering). All cards coloured by inking through the two stencils at the same time with various shades of blue distress inks.
Designs 3 & 4
6 x 6 cards made using ‘John Next Door’ Round media plate, Versafine Onyx Black ink pad, Various shades of Blue distress inks, a variety of christmas stamps, most were free gifts with craft magazines and the addition of silver stars table confetti and snowflakes cut using Hunkydory snowflake dies from the Hunkydory Christmas boxed kit (Note: I did find it more successful to stamp the snowflakes onto the card rather than the media plate).
Design 5
A6 cards made using Sizzix Thinlits 9 Die Set – Christmas Phrase Cards 659973. for the accent words, I used flat self adhesive foils for the cards I intended to post and glittered self adhesive foam for those I was hand delivering.
