Saturday, December 21, 2024

Spellbinders - Gold Holly with Stencil coloring

Happy Saturday!

Today I have the third and last Christmas card to share using Spellbinders - Glimmer Holly Background.  I bought the bundle from Spellbinders, which had the hot foil plate and coordinating stencils for coloring the background.  For this card, I used gold foil on PaperTrey Ink white cardstock. 

I colored the holly and leaves using the 4 layer stencil, 3 stencils are different leaves and 1 for the berries.  I used inks from PaperTrey Ink, Green Parakeet, New Leaf; for the holly leaves I used 2 inks Prairie Grass and Olive Twist.  To color the berries, Autumn Rose and Scarlet Jewel.   

 The Merry Christmas die I found on Amazon and I liked that it was all one piece, even the dot of the i is part of the Merry swoosh.  I matted the gold Merry Christmas sentiment on a piece of vellum to help it from getting lost in the background.  I used glue to attach the sentiment to the vellum, then applied glue behind the die cut to attach the vellum to the base card.  I nice trick so no glue or tape shows thru the vellum.  The vellum is from PaperTrey ink.  

The base card is PTI Pure Poppy cardstock.  I also added a die cut poinsettia to this card, cut from pure poppy and gold cardstock.  The die has 5 pieces which I glued together to create the layered flower.  

I made some cards vertical and some horizontal.

I will have another Christmas card tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by...
Blessings to you,
Deb

Sunday, December 15, 2024

Spellbinders - Gold Holly and Colored Pencil

 Happy Sunday!

Today I have another Christmas card to share using Spellbinders - Glimmer Holly Background.  This the second card I made with this glimmer plate.  This one I used gold foil on blue cardstock (PaperTrey Ink - Enchanted Evening). 

I colored some of the the holly and leaves with Prismacolor colored pencils.  This was a technique I saw in both online cardmaking courses I took this Fall.  The Stress Free Cardmaking Summit and Justine Hovey's online 12 Days of Christmas cardmaking tutorial.  Using the colored pencils on a dark cardstock is really striking and unexpected.  I was really drawn to trying it myself and this is the card I came up with.

 The background is matted on gold cardstock and the Merry Christmas is die cut from the center of the gold mat. The Merry Christmas die I found on Amazon and I liked that it was all one piece, even the dot of the i is part of the Merry swoosh.  I matted the Merry Christmas sentiment on a piece of vellum to help it from getting lost in the background.  This was something I learned from Justine Hovey's online 12 Days of Christmas cardmaking tutorial. 

I made some cards vertical and some horizontal.

Yesterday I posted a card created with this same glimmer plate in silver.
Saturday, I will have another card version using the stencil from the bundle.

Thanks for stopping by...
Blessings to you,
Deb 

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Spellbinders - Silver Holly Christmas Card

 
Happy Saturday!

Today I have another Christmas card to share.  This card uses a Hot Foil plate from Spellbinders, which I bought in a bundle - Glimmer Holly Background.  I made 3 different cards with this glimmer plate.  This first one is a simple silver foil on blue cardstock (PaperTrey Ink - Enchanted Evening).  It is matted on silver cardstock and the Merry Christmas is die cut from the center of the silver mat.

The Merry Christmas die I found on Amazon and I liked that it was all one piece, even the dot of the i is part of the Merry swoosh.  I matted the Merry Christmas sentiment on a piece of vellum to help it from getting lost in the background.  This was something I learned from Justine Hovey's online 12 Days of Christmas cardmaking tutorial. 

I made some cards vertical and some horizontal.

The next 2 posts will show some other techniques using this same glimmer plate.

The Christmas card making class I took online in September - Stress Free Cardmaking Summit, was 3 days of cardmaking and technique tutorials.  It really kickstarted my Christmas card making in October and led to making lots of different cards using lots of different techniques.  I got out my watercolors, colored pencils, stencil and inks and one card is colored with Copics, so there is more to come in the next 4 posts.  More glimmer foil and BetterPress use too.

Thanks for stopping by...
Blessings to you,
Deb 

Sunday, December 8, 2024

Spellbinders - Let Us Adore Him

Happy Sunday!

I am thrilled to have completed my 2024 Christmas cards.  I have many designs to share over the coming weeks.  Today's card uses Spellbinders BetterPress Letterpress system and a press plate called Let Us Adore Him.  

I took some Christmas cardmaking seminars online this Fall and it was a great place to find inspiration, learn new techniques and a refresh for old techniques too.  Inevitably, I saw new tools demonstrated in the videos and the Spellbinders BetterPress System was new to me.  It is a Letterpress system, like a printing press, you place a metal image plate on a magnetic base.  Then, ink the image plate and run it through the Spellbinders Platinum Machine to transfer the image to the cardstock with even and uniform pressure.   I have to say, for large images and backgrounds, it is amazing, especially when it can be a struggle to get the full image to stamp without a stamping tool.

For this card, I used Gold Brilliance Pigment ink to ink the Let Us Adore Him plate.  The impression transferred really well.  Spellbinders recommends their ink and papers to use the system, however I have been using my normal PaperTrey Ink cardstock and inks I have like Mementos and Brilliance. The BetterPress plates are also compatible with the Spellbinders Glimmer Foil System, so I could have created this card with a gold foil rather than ink.   It is nice to have options.  

I also used a new embossing folder for this card.  It is Spellbinders Holiday Floral Swag 3D embossing folder.  The impression is so amazing, really has a 3D effect.  I embossed a 4.25 x 5.5" piece of cardstock and cut 2 side panels from it. Added a few gold embellishments and gold mat and this card was complete.

Card #2 - different section on the embossed image

More Christmas cards next week.

Thanks for stopping by...
Blessings to you,
Deb