Ho Ho Ho! A Vintage Santa Christmas Card

Hello crafty friends!  With eight days to go until Christmas, I thought I'd make a card to share with you using Honey Bee Stamps totally amazing Lovely Layers: Vintage Santa Honey Cuts.  The details on this Santa's face are truly amazing and so life like!

First I worked on making the Lovely Layers: Vintage Santa.  I die cut red and brown cardstocks with the clothing dies.  All other die cut pieces are from white cardstock.

I used Copic markers to color each die cut of the facial details.  Here is a list of colors I used:

• skin tones: E11, E50, E51, E53
• cheeks, tongue: R20, R21, R30
• eyes: BG02, 100
• shading hair/beard and trim on clothes: B0000, C00, C00, C01

I also used a dark red and brown Copic maker to add some quick shading to the clothes and boots.

Using the Layering Guide (link to download is in product description) is so helpful when assembling the layers for the first time.  I used Bee Creative glue to adhere each layer.  Then I added details to Santa's cheeks, hat, and clothes with a white gel pen.

Next I die cut green cardstock with the Pine Trees Honey Cuts.  I used a blending brush to add dark green ink for shading.  Then I used my finger to add Snowfall Distress Grit Paste here and there on the trees.  I set them aside to dry.

Next I created a fun bokeh watercolor background.  Later today, I will have a reel on my Instagram where you can see exactly how I made this.  The basic steps are as follows.

• Trim watercolor paper to 5" x 7" and tape it down to your work surface with removable tape.
• Use a wide flat paintbrush to wet the entire panel.
• Starting at the top, brush on dark blue watercolor from side to side to create an ombre look.
• For the bokeh dots I took a small piece of clean paper towel and wrapped a few coins of different sizes with it.  If you panel is still wet, just dab the wrapped coin onto the panel to lift the paint.
• My panel was dry, so I misted just a bit of water onto the paper towel and pressed it onto the painted surface to lift off the paint.
• Next I diluted bleed-proof white paint with a bit of water and added splatters to the panel with a paint brush.

When the splatters were dry, I diluted more white paint and used a brush to paint the snowy ground and dried it with my heat tool.  Then  I used a pallet knife to smear Snowfall Distress Grit Paste over the white paint.  This Grit Paste gives a subtle sparkle for the snow.

I adhered the dry panel to a 5" x 7" card base.  Then I used glue and foam tape to adhere all of the elements to the card.

I'm still using the sentiments from the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp set.  I stamped this once a few weeks ago.  You get 14 sentiments on one stamp!  Then die cut them out all at once with the coordinating Simply Stated die.

I find creating backgrounds like this one so very relaxing!  Do you ever create inky backgrounds for your cards?  You should try it!  Just remember to have fun and don't worry about messing up--it's just paper!

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I'll be back here on Christmas Eve to share one more holiday card!  Have a wonderful week until then!

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Nutcracker Die Cut Holiday Card With Non-traditional Colors

Hello crafty friends!  Now that we are into December, (can you believe it?!) I am making as many Christmas cards as I can and hope to still have time to mail them!  What about you?  Well, if you aren't finished either, I have some inspiration to share today!  My card features Honey Bee Stamps awesome Lovely Layers: Nutcracker dies.  Check it out!

I put a different twist on the Lovely Layers: Nutcracker by using pastel colors instead of the typical red.  I chose some minty green cardstocks, a very pale peach color cardstock, matte gold cardstock, and 80# Neenah to die cut each of the various layers.

I love how Honey Bee provides layering guides for the Lovely Layers sets!  The Nutcracker has some small die cut pieces, but the layering guides makes the assembly easy!  I used Bee Creative glue to adhere all of the layers together.

Note:  I did use a few Copic markers to color the skin and hair.

For the background, I embossed a 4-¼" x 5-½" piece of white cardstock with the beautiful Into The Woods 3D embossing folder and glued it to an A2 card base.

Then I cut white cardstock with my scissors to make a hilly, snowy ground layer and glued that at the bottom of my card.

For more detail, I die cut two shades of minty green and peach cardstocks with the Lovely Layers: Trees dies to create two trees.  For the tree trunk, I die cut gold matte cardstock.  I glued the large tree to the base.  Then I popped up the smaller tree and the Nutcracker with foam tape.

I still have sentiments saved from the one time I stamped the awesome Simply Stated: Holiday stamp.  I love that you get all these sentiments at once and then can die cut them all at once with the Simply Stated die!  I used a foam tape strip to adhere the sentiment to my card.

For a bit of bling, I added gold and pearl stickers from the Merry Moments Pearl Stickers.

I hope you love this Lovely Layers: Nutcracker in the non-traditional colors as much as I do!  Thank you so very much for stopping by!  I hope your day is wonderful!

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Merry and Bright Christmas Card

Happy Wednesday, friends!!  Today I'm sharing my elegant holiday card that features Honey Bee Stamps Lovely Layers: Bow & Bough and the Snowflake Symphony stencil!  Check out all of the details below.

To begin, I sprayed the back of the Snowflake Symphony stencil with Pixie Spray.  This is a beautiful, but delicate stencil and the temporary adhesive will lightly adhere all of the stencil to the cardstock.   After placing the stencil over a 4-¼" x 5-½" piece of red cardstock, I used Detail Blending brushes to blend two shades of darker red inks through the stencil.

I went over the edges a second time with the darkest red ink for more depth.  I carefully removed the stencil and glued the piece to an A2 card base.

Next I used the dies in the Lovely Layers: Bow and Bough set to cut the Bough pieces from two shades of green card stocks.  I die cut the Bow layers from gold glitter and mat gold cardstocks.  I used glue to assemble the layers of the bow and added a few foam squares to the back to adhere it to the card.

I used glue to adhere the die cut Bough pieces around the bow as shown in the photo.

The sentiment is from the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp set.  As you may know, this is a single stamp that stamps all of the sentiments together.  I didn't really think that I will need that many sentiments embossed in gold on red cardstock, but it is really easy to get just one sentiment too!

I placed a small piece of red cardstock into my MISTI.  I positioned the sentiment I wanted from Simply Stated: Holiday stamp over the red cardstock.  Then I added some anti-static powder to the cardstock, inked up just the one sentiment with clear embossing ink and stamped it.  Then I added gold embossing powder to the stamped sentiment and used my heat tool to set it.

Next I used the Simply Stated die to cut out my sentiment.  It was very easy to do!  I added a few foam squares to the back of the sentiment to adhere it to my card.

I added a bit of bling to the card with a few pearls from the Merry Moments Pearl Stickers set.

I do love stencils and this Snowflake Symphony stencil is definitely one of my favorites!  I hope you've enjoyed this elegant, but also easy, card and have found some inspiration here.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

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Merry Everything Mixed Media Card With Stitching

Happy Wednesday, crafty friends!  Today I'm sharing my card featuring Honey Bee Stamps gorgeous In Stitches: Snowflake Honey Cuts with the equally beautiful Silent Night stamp!  I created a sparkly stitched and embellished snowflake to add to my mixed media holiday card.  Check out the details below!

My supplies for the In Stitches: Snowflake are as follows:

• In Stitches: Snowflake die
• white wool felt (Note: wool felt die cuts much better than the acrylic felt you might find at your local craft store.)
• white glitter cardstock
• DMC size 24 Tapestry needle
• DMC B5200 white embroidery floss (separated into 3 strands)
• seeds beads (from my stash)

The In Stitches: Snowflake set has two dies--one for the top layer and another for the bottom layer.  Both layers can be die cut from felt, however, I die cut the bottom layer from white glitter cardstock.

After separating my embroidery floss into three strands, I stitched through the die cut holes in the center of the Snowflake as there are no holes for these in the back layer.  If you use felt for both layers, you don't need to do this step.

Then I stitched both layers together.  I used regular white thread to sew on the seed beads.  As I mentioned above, there are no holes for the middle portion.  I could use a sharp pointed needle to poke through the glitter cardstock, but I just used my cannot-craft-without die pick tool to add those holes.

I like to add little dabs of glue to the thread knots on the back of the piece.  Probably not necessary, but it gives me peace of mind that it won't come undone!  Haha!

The A2 card base is layered with a piece of patterned paper that is in the "Free Bee" paper pack that will automatically be added to a qualifying order.

I stamped the gorgeous Silent Night stamp set with clear embossing ink onto a light brown cardstock.  I added a white sparkle embossing powder and used my heat tool to set it.

Next I tore all of the edges of the panel.  Then I used an ink blending brush to ink the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink.  I glued the panel to my card base.

EDITED:  There was something I just didn't like about the look.  Several hours after publishing this post, I had a thought.  I DID NOT like the brown edges!!!!  So I used a blending brush and white pigment ink to go over the edges and I like it much better.

HERE IS MY ORIGINAL PHOTO.  Which do you like best?

I like the new version so much better!  Do you ever do anything like this?  LOL!

Next I decided I wanted just a touch of something with the Snowflake so I die cut a few branches that are in the Lovely Layers: Sleigh Bell die set.  I glued those to the card, and then glued on the snowflake.

I am a HUGE fan of sentiment stamps that are ONE piece and stamp several sentiments all at once!  That is what the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp set is!  I stamped it in black pigment ink and cut it out with the coordinating Simply Stated die.

After I chose one of the awesome sentiments, I used foam squares to adhere it to my card.

After I stamped the Simply Stated: Holiday stamp, I noticed four tiny little hearts that also were stamped.  Guess what those are for?  The Simply Stated die has four little heart holes that help you line up the die!  Isn't that genius?!!

There are so many fun techniques on my card today!  I hope you like it and are inspired to try one of the awesome In Stitches die sets on a project.  TIP:  I use this Storage Pocket to store all of my In Stitches sets together!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope your day is fabulous!

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