Christmas in June

Well, I know it’s usually Christmas in July in the crafting world, however, over at VIHQ, there’s exciting news coming next month so we’re doing the festive stuff early.  For my CAS makes this week, I’ve done a bit of batch making to get ahead.  I’m not a big fan of all my cards being exactly the same so using an inky background ensures the cards are the same but different whilst still offering the speed of production-line style stamping.

For the inky backgrounds, I got busy with my Tim Holtz Distress stains and spritzes and half A4 pieces of card.  I like to use a bigger piece of card so that I can trim the part that suits my project best.  Invariably there’s a dodgy edge so it allows for trimming that off! The stains I used were: Dusty Concord, Picked Raspberry, Chipped Sapphire, Stormy Sky, Broken China and Lost Shadow (for the snowy part).  The spritzes were Picked Raspberry, Wilted Violet, Uncharted Mariner and Weathered Wood.  I tried not to make the sky too dark so that black stamping would show up and faded to a lighter, snowy area at the bottom.

After cutting each panel down to 5¼” square, I used my MISTI and positioned the card tight to the top right corner.  The sentiments I used were from Go To Christmas Words and Sketched Christmas Trees.  I stamped the panels, ensuring that each one was tucked up into that top corner each time.

Next, I positioned the sleigh and the rooftops from Christmas Eve in my MISTI and stamped each of the panels.

Since I’d just been using the rooftops, I used my piece of clear packaging to protect my card from any stray ink whilst repositioning the stamp to extend the roofline.  The “THIS SIDE UP!” notation is to ensure that the clean side is always against my project.  This step was then repeated to finish the row of houses on the other side.

Rather than matting each panel on black card, I simply drew carefully around the edges of the panels with a black Sharpie.  This is a handy tip for reducing the weight of the card if you’re posting abroad. 

I had planned on stopping there but instead decided to add some snowy splatter.  I watered down some Dr. pH Martin’s Bleedproof white and used a toothbrush to add tiny speckles to the card. The more the brush is loaded and the closer you splatter, the bigger the drops will be.  I just wanted light speckles so that the writing didn’t get obliterated.

Then I simply adhered each panel to a square card blank.  Here’s the finished duo.

If you’re wondering why there weren’t many panels on my production line, that’s because I had forgotten myself and already made four using a discontinued set!