In My Heart

Hello Everyone!

Perhaps this Christmas there are friends or family that you are unable to spend time with over the holidays. I think we all wish it didn’t have to be that way… But for those special people, a card such as this would be the perfect Christmas greeting to let them know you are thinking about them, even when they are far away.

Today’s card is another one-layer creation, with bright colors inspired by the Kraft Journal’s Color Inspiration (part of this week’s challenge over on their blog), making this mouse and bird stamp from the Penny Black “Jolly Friends” set come to life!

To create this card, I first stamped my image in StazOn Timber Brown ink, onto watercolor paper, which was cut and folded to an A2 sized card base. Once my image was stamped, I then went ahead and began watercoloring my image in bright and bold hues. After the entire image was colored, I hit it with my heat gun to ensure everything was dry.

Next, taking a Versamark pen and some white embossing powder, I went over parts of the tree and added some “snow” to the branches. This adds a lot more interest to the tree, and looks great with the snowflakes I ended up embossing as well. The snowflakes were embossed with a Versamark ink pad and the same white powder used on the tree.

The sentiment is from another Penny Black stamp set, “Hugs“. I stamped the sentiment in red pigment ink that matched the red in my watercoloring perfectly, and applied clear embossing powder overtop before heat setting it. Quick tip: pigment inks are a wet ink, and work very nicely for heat embossing.

From scrap paper, I hand cut a hilly slope and used the positive and negative portions of my “hill” as masks for adding the sky and snow-shadows (using Tim Holtz distress inks and an ink blending tool). Another quick tip: while the heat embossed parts of this card resist ink that is applied overtop, it is always a great idea to take a dry cloth or tissue and “buff” the embossed parts of your card, to remove any ink that may be sitting on top of embossing.

To finish off the card, I simply added some red and white baker’s twine around the bottom of the card… a very simple, yet sweet card for that special person you wish you had around to spend the holidays with!

Simon Says Stamp’s is showcase Penny Black products this week as part of the Winter Inspiration challenge over on their Wednesday Challenge blog…. hop on over to check it out!

And the Kraft Journal has a beautiful color palette this week, which was the inspiration for the color choices for my card.  Their Make It Monday challenge is going on this week as well, over on the Kraft Journal blog!