The 9 Days of Christmas - Day 8 - Wanda

Welcome to Quietfire Design's 9 Days of Christmas - Day 8!

If you've been following along, you'll know we have a wonderful way to share these new stamps with you during this event.

If you are a subscriber to Scrapbooking.com you will have seen Judi Kauffman's Holiday Headstart article published Sept 1, 2013. In that article each designer created three cards of increasing complexity. We will be continuing that theme for all 9 days!

Each designer has created

1. One "quick and easy" card - in a style you can make multiples of, but nice enough to send out to your friends.  Basically; cardstock, stamp, patterned paper.
2. One "a little more" card - the same card as the "quick and easy", but adding some embellishment or more complex.  This one would take a bit more time or cost a bit more to make.
3. One "over the top" card  - Enough said!  This would be an heirloom card, something you'd keep, frame, display every year - perhaps something with a removable ornament. For hand delivery or shipped in a box.

The new stamps may be found
in the New Stamps department
by clicking
here.

 Here are Wanda's creations!  Don't forget to leave a comment at the bottom of this post to be eligible for a prize.

Hello!!!!  I had a fabulous time making the cards for this event!!  For those who've followed me for awhile you have probably realized that almost always I make my own backgrounds. I do like printed paper - really I do - and I own way more than I should but I LOVE making my own more!!!  And it doesn't have to take a long time, it can be really fast.  To show that, I took some step-by-step pics when making the background I used for my cards and am sharing those after my 3 cards.  I did a whole 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock and then cut it into 4 pieces to use (so I still have one left after making my cards).

My "quick and easy" card is actually a postcard.  I know that some people have started sending postcards at Christmas time to save on postage.  It measures 4" x 5 1/4".  I laid the largest Spellbinders Classic Oval Lg die on my paper and drew a line around the outside edge using Tombow marker #723.  I went around a few times to get a deeper color, removed the die and squiggled over the original line with the same marker.  I stamped the quote with Ranger's Archival Ink jet black, dried the ink with my heat tool, stamped both the small and large Christmas trees with Distress Ink peeled paint and dried the ink.  Next I rubbed a little of the peeled paint ink on my craft sheet, used a waterbrush to pick up a little color, colored inside the trees and dried them.  Using a blending tool I sponged Distress Ink bundled sage around the edges and then some Distress Ink worn lipstick just on the very edge.

On the back of the "postcard" I stamped the Merry Christmas image at the top with jet black ink.  Next I used a centering ruler to make 2 small pencil marks, then drew the black line, then looked and went "that's not in the middle!!"... I guess I looked at the ruler wrong, lol.  It still works!!  I had a little bit of ink on the back of the paper from when I was making the full background sheet and to hide that - and it also looks very nice - I slowly spritzed bundled sage ink so I got lots of droplets (I was not going for coverage), laid on a paper towel to blot up all excess ink so the color wouldn't be too dark and then dried it. 

Everything I did for the postcard was fast and it really didn't take long at all.

If you are concerned about mailing something like this because - what if it got a little wet or something, a great product to use to protect it is Microglaze.  You just use your finger to rub a very thin layer over the paper and then buff it off with a paper towel... very quick and totally protected.

For my "little more" card, I took a piece of my background, trimmed it to 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" and cut the largest Classic Oval Lg die from the center of the paper allowing me to use both pieces as layers and no one knows there is a big hole in the center of the background.  The edges of the background are sponged with bundled sage ink.  I stamped and colored the quote and trees onto the oval in the same way as with the postcard but then I also used a fine paint brush, not waterbrush, to pick up color and add lines inside the trees for a more "textured" look.  I die cut the largest Spellbinder's Beaded Oval die from white cardstock, sprayed it with Spun Sugar and dried it.  Sprayed a piece of 7mm White Silk Ribbon with spun sugar and dried it.  My folded card is white and I used Distress Ink spun sugar and a blending tool to color the front edges before layering everything on.  Tied the ribbon around the background, attached it to the folded card, added the beaded ovals piece with foam mounting tape and then the oval stamped piece with foam mounting tape.  

My "over-the-top" card is started in exactly the same way as my "little more" card.  The background piece is embossed with Tim Holtz's Regal Flourishes and I edged it with Distress Paint tarnished brass.  The beaded ovals piece, I did spray it with spun sugar just like the "little more" card but decided I wanted the color to be deeper so I also sponged on more ink using a blending tool.  I stamped and colored the center oval in the same way and also edged it with Distress Paint tarnished brass.  I stamped extra trees, 2 large and 3 small, onto Specialty Stamping paper, colored them, cut them out and layered them as shown on the card.  Finished it off with one of Quietfire's fabulous deer charms.  

Now onto creating the background.  One of the quickest ways to get down color for a background is by spraying but what if you want to spray Distress Ink colors?  It's simple, you put Distress Stains into Mister bottles.  You can see in the picture below that the top of the stains bottle comes out and then you can pour the stain into a spray bottle.  The colors here are spun sugar and bundled sage. 

I took a piece of Ranger's Specialty Stamping Paper and sprayed it heavily with both colors.  (Ignore the blue spot, something with the lights)

Laid another piece on top pressing the two pieces together very well and then pulled them apart.  (Again ignore the blue)

Here they are after drying.  You can let them air dry or use your heat tool. These were left to air dry as I had to go do something else but if you use your heat tool you can also do some blotting while drying for a different look.

Next I used the largest Dreamweaver Damask stencil, Distress Ink worn lipstick and a blending tool and sponged some design across my piece.  I was going for random so did not color whole images.

Then I used the Dreamweaver Swirl stencil, Distress Ink bundled sage, and a blending tool for another layer of design.  These layers go on very fast, just a couple minutes per layer and you're done.

Finally I put some Distress Paint tarnished brass onto my craft sheet, picked up some paint with a wet waterbrush, tapped the brush over my finger allowing droplets to fall on the paper and dried it with a heat tool.  I tried to hold the paper at an angle in light so you could see the gold highlights... beautiful!!  

So that is it for me.  I hope you've enjoyed what I had to share and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a prize!!!!