My only real plan when I started making these cards was that I wanted to make some striped panels to use as the base. I have a box of card scraps and the smaller bits get cut into randomly sized strips to use on things like this. I quickly decided that I didn't want a… Continue reading Striped joy
This is the basic design I planned to use when I was thinking about making this batch of cards, but it is not the technique I was hoping to experiment with. I had thought that I would use the Alcohol Lift Ink pad that has been lurking in my stash for ages along with the… Continue reading Alcohol ink Merry Christmas
Another simple, small batch of Christmas cards. I'm not sure how many more cards I'll make this year — I have a couple more ideas that I definitely want to have a go at, but I'm also super aware of time passing and also that Royal Mail deliveries have been getting a bit sluggish since… Continue reading Let it snow snowflakes
This little batch of cards was inspired by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Hand-stamped Trees. Over the years I have carved a handful of small stamps; I gathered them up and selected a few that felt like the patterns would work together. Rather than use tape, I cut out a simple triangle stencil for the tree shape… Continue reading Stamped Christmas tree
After making the set with the gold snowflakes on red, I pondered making a more contemporary set with silver snowflakes on purple — I quickly decided that it would be a nice alternative and would give me another much-needed small batch of cards — and so I did. It's very rare that I repeat designs,… Continue reading Silver snowflakes on purple
If I have any chance of making enough Christmas cards this year, I am absolutely going to have to do a few small batches of relatively simple cards. And this is the first of those. Not that it hasn't taken me most of a day to finish them off, finding time in between the daily… Continue reading Gold snowflakes on red
Another small batch of Christmas cards; unlike recent batches, these are not all identical, but they are made with the same techniques and layout. I've used Brusho before, but mostly in the "add Brusho, spray with water and fingers crossed it looks okay" way. These were a bit more controlled. The technique was inspired by… Continue reading Christmas splash of colour
This is one of the two Christmas dies I bought for this year's cardmaking; I do like border sentiment dies and there is enough detail in this one that the rest of the design can be fairly simple. I divided the card into three sections: sentiment, trees and snow. Because I was going to make… Continue reading Field of Christmas trees
The first of my small batches of Christmas cards this year, and the simplest. It's very rare that I make stamping the focal point of a card; most stamping is quickly followed by colouring... But I wanted designs that would be easy to reproduce and that wouldn't take hours to make. I am okay at… Continue reading Happy Christmas tree
What: So, I checked my stash of Christmas cards. And then I checked my Christmas card list. And then I had a little panic. And then I came up with a design that I could create multiple variations of. How: First I stamped a load of critters and snowmen and coloured them with Inktense pencils.… Continue reading Christmas cards: Batch set
Crafty Rat 