Banana Frog Guest Spot Part 2

I am very conscious that Christmas is now under two months away! I am one of these strange creatures who likes making Christmas cards actually OVER the Christmas period, so I probably had at least half of them done by the middle of January. Since then, though, there has been almost non-existent progress, so once Bev from Banana Frog had sent me her lovely selection of stamps to create with this month, I knew it was overtime to redress the balance.

I decided to showcase just a small selection of the myriad techniques that stamping utilises, and highlight this gorgeous set of stamps called Christmas Elegance.

I have a particular thing about misting at the moment, so used a combination of misting, embossing and sewing on this first card.

The baubles were coloured in with Distress inks and then embossed with black to make them glossy. I used red handmade textured paper which adds more dimension, but the shimmery texture is unfortunately lost in the photo.

I see purple is quite a strong Christmas colour this year, and this next offering is like a blustery winter scene, using three different shades of Cosmic shimmers.

I think certain peel-offs have their place (used judiciously!) and I have added some textured snow to this scene with buttons and white Stampendous snowflake peel-offs. I used white dotty rub-ons around the border of the misted area to add contrast to the overall card. I added Stickles to the tops of the buttons, which unfortunately doesn't translate here.

There will always be a place for the traditional colours of red and green at Christmas.

The small set of Budmo Jiggler stamps are perfect for adding a greeting with a bit of bling - by adding tiny daubs of Stickles, I think this card has achieved that retro, glamorous Hollywood look of days gone by! The tiny red gems adhered to the stamped tree baubles were stuck on using Glossy Accents. I broke out my Marvy Le Plume pine green marker to add a border, which helps draw your eye into the card.

And last but not least - I broke out my alcohol inks for this last card, which is another vision of purpleness. This one is my favourite, especially being mounted onto a gold card, which I think adds extra sophistication!

I hate throwing things away, and love to recycle as much as possible. I use leftover photographic printer paper (which has had images previously printed on it) and overcolour this with alcohol inks. Using lighter shades of ink aren't successful here, as too much of the previous image shows through. Being that my main aim is limiting wastage, I think I gain a lot of interest because the image also has an interesting gradient of colour showing through and it adds depth to the background. I then overstamped with white brilliance ink for the branches and the snowflakes in dark purple. There are an additional three layers on this card, with the mica shard, the greeting and the ribbon. Lots of shiny shimmeriness on this Christmas offering, especially with the additional Stickles on the stamped snowflakes on the mica!

By having this one set of Christmas stamps, you can create a huge variety of different, elegant seasonal cards which will surely stand out from the crowd. By also mixing techniques and using different materials, this can really give your creative process a boost when making a large amount of cards at a very busy time of year.

Those were the Christmas cards that I showcased at the Banana Frog blog on 20th Oct.  I hope you enjoyed what I created!