Christmas in July
Good day, fellow crafters. As I seize the day, I find myself embracing the spirit of the upcoming holidays, and right now, I'm making the most of this moment to engage in some delightful pre-holiday planning. As the sun shines brightly in the middle of the year, I can't help but feel a hint of Christmas magic surrounding me. Hence, I'm excited to share with you my submission for a charming Christmas in July card that I just created. I hope you enjoy.
Before crafting this card, I set myself some personal guidelines to ensure it met my creative vision. I wanted the chosen iconography to embody the spirit of Christmas while being distinct from my recent works. Considering the card's limited size, I aimed for a design that wouldn't be overly ornate so as to maintain simplicity without compromising on its charm. Most importantly, I sought an element thathad a sense of humor, making the card memorable and delightful. In the end, I decided on this Nutcracker stamp set from Globeland, which if you are interested can be found here.
Once I had made the decision for my focal elements I looked through my Christmas pattern paper book and selected one with lots of personality and just so happened to also have tiny nutcrackers on it as well. I then trimmed the chosen paper down to its final dimensions as well as a dark purple mat to which I adhered the paper too. This then was adhered to the pre-cut A2 white card base I had sourced from my stash of ready card bases.
The next step was to determine the placement of my focal elements so that I could add my sentiment. By using a nutcracker stamp I was able to align and stamp the sentiment, from this stamp set, in a clear embossing ink and then used a fine silver embossing powder which was heat set.
In the next stage, which was my favorite, I stamped all of my nutcrackers onto some Hammermill paper in black ink. Then using inks from Simon Says Stamp and Altenew, pictured right, I smooshed out a bit of the color I wanted to use onto my glass mat, spritzed with a little water, then used my watercolor brush pen to pick up the ink to color my images. I love to watercolor and the amount of detail on this stamp, while meeting the criteria for not being to ornate, still had enough detail that it gave me a challenge to make it look the way I envisioned. Once completed I set them aside and wait for them to dry. When that had finally occurred I added some pop-dots for dimension and then adhered them to the background panel.
