Whoop! I did it! 31 days of Christmas projects all with videos over on my YouTube channel- what a lot of fun it has been, along with a fair amount of work obviously!
Final card was of course about Father Christmas!
And it ended up being a sewing themed card as I used fabric instead of patterned paper and buttons and the cool measuring tape ephemera I had in the stash!
Some fun textures and of course the gorgeous vintage Santa
Kept the fabric and sewing theme going for the inside of the card too.
What a fun and different style of card to end the month on! It really has been a full month of different styles and ideas – hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as me!
Final sketch of the month and I went with a grid background…
… but instead of patterned paper like I’ve used for the other sketches I made my own with a layered stencil.
So the poinsettia layered stencil for the background which I then cut into squares for the grid effect. With hindsight I would trim them smaller if doing this again so more of the gap would be evident and match more to the sketch – but hey hindsight is a lovely thing isn’t it?!?
Then used an old Waffleflower poinsettia layered stamp and die set for the focal point.
I die cut some circles from the plum coloured cardstock I had made the card base from and then added a banner under the die cut sentiment.
Love how the circles give some separation under the flower from the heavy patterned background.
Also think the gems look pretty that I added – nice to choose a slightly different colour scheme for the poinsettia too!
Inside I added the offcuts of the background to finish off.
Love this – but then we know I love a poinsettia themed anything!
I clearly had run out of ideas when it came to planning for this day – I just had a note of the colour combo in the folder – no supplies or ideas!
When I was filming the intro I had the idea to use some glitter paper for die cutting and so that started the process off – and then I went through the basket of dies and chose the Wreath Builder dies to make this super pretty but super simple card!
I chose silver glitter paper for the base bobbly wreath, black Matt cardstock for the leafy wreath and then red glitter for the bow and the flowers.
Then stamped the sentiment and those three little star elements.
Inside the card I then added a scrap of black and three flowers.
I love the simplicity of these wreaths and how pretty they are when layered – and obviously the glitter just adds the perfect festive finish!
Love it!
And as I enter these last few days I am starting to feel a little sad that CIJ is almost over. It’s a lot of work to do this but it’s also so much fun! Need to start planning for what my next challenge is and what might appear on the blog and YouTube in the next few weeks! But before that … last few days videos and projects need to be made!
Today’s prompt led me to grab the Peace and Joy stamps and dies and that made me think of my lovely friend Martin and the card that he made back in 2020 where I first saw his work … and as they say the rest is history!
My card is above and it is very much made as a tribute to Martins card …
So different but very similar!
I encourage anyone who isn’t already – please go follow Martin – he is so creative and I love his style – helps he is also a lovely person too!
Added my own twist by both amending the placement of the wreath, using different leaves and adding the vellum rather than the white for the centre of the wreath.
But very much in keeping with his fab original!
Inside the card just added the leftover leaves as an overlapping strip at the bottom of the white panel!
My thanks go to Martin for the many creative inspirations he has provided over the years and for his friendship!
When I decided on the prompts I did use quite a few Christmas song titles and well I didn’t really think about what to make when I chose them. So this is one that made me think for a while but then I came up with the idea of a city scene in the snowglobe! So mixed together a magazine stamp set and the For the Love of Stamps set.
And it came out well … and used the lovely circle dies to create the circle card with all the layers.
Loads of lovely shine too from the foiled cardstock layer and love the mix of the white and silver embossing!
Inside I added another silver city scene and the sentiment on a panel I inked.
So quite a cool card and I think it fits the brief of Fairytale in New York – what do you think?
I think when I grabbed the stash for this prompt I was going to go with the floral stamps and make a blue themed Christmas bouquet but I changed my mind and instead went with the house stamps and shimmery watercolor!
Instead a simple flat card with some gems but a beautiful shimmery finish was the result!
I mean how cute but how simple!
Bold stamping, shimmery finish and the lovely torn edge work so well for what could be a card to say hello but of course Christmas on the inside!
Loved making this – partly because those watercolours are so lovely to work with – but also because by this point I was on my third video of the day and needed a quick and easy project!
When I use these cute reindeer stamps I always think of making cards for children – and so that was what was in my mind making this set of three cards – for me I thought of my great nephews and nieces – but also remembered making many cards for M’s classmates when she was younger that this sort of thing would be perfect for!
Gorgeous Avery Elle stamps with simple little panels of cardstock made into the small card bases – and then layers of solid and simple patterns – a touch of fun with the scraps of ribbon/twine and the die cut foiled circles!
Seriously cute right?
The video shows how easily they all came together – I love that they are all different but equally cute and could easily be replicated with different papers and colours or a different focal image!
I did decorate the insides too – could have kept this plainer and used the reindeers as the focal points for other cards instead – but this year I am all about the inside of cards so I went with the extra elements inside!
Hopefully some fun ideas for people making cards for children for the Christmas season – especially if you have a lot to make for!
This time I went for a different shaped card for the sketch but feel free to use the sketch however you want!
I decided to pull out some of the new papers I treated myself to when I had a little splurge on Vinted. I grabbed the ones that were slightly vintage looking with some muted colours but modern design prints. I cut panels to work with the sketch and inked them all with Vintage photo.
Then I used an old stamp set that had this lovely wreath on it and stamped that, used some additional ink on a paintbrush to fill in the leaves and then fussy cut it out.
I created the strips to sit behind (the scrap I grabbed was too short so I stuck the two ends to an extender made from another scrap!)
Then twisted that element on the sketch so it would fit as it was too wide to sit as per the original sketch.
I added the die cut foliage and the sentiment that were already sat on the desk and seemed to work with the card and then some gems added to the wreath.
A lovely vintage feeling card with lots of interesting patterns.
Inside I stamped the wreath a couple of times off the edge of the card and added one scrap of the paper to finish off!
I have used patterned paper quite a few times when using sketches this CIJ – you don’t have to – you could replace the patterned paper with stamped or stencilling or solid cardstock – just so happens each time it’s been time for a sketch I have wanted to go with patterned paper! I know there is one more sketch in the series so wondering if the same will happen for that!
One of the suggestions for including in Christmas in July made by a subscriber was for Christmas scenes – and so I thought this prompt would be a good one to share an idea for making scenes – albeit a few of these aren’t exactly ‘white Christmas’ themed!
So my starting point was the small circle gelli plate and using distress oxides to create little inky circles. I made six in total but decided to only use four for this set of cards.
I used a mix of ink colours and layered them up so the colours blended and layered.
Then when I was happy with them I grabbed a magazine stamp set that had some winter animals and some scenes/ tree stamps and stamped these in black Versafine. I used the stamping tool to be able to double stamp in case they needed more depth.
I then die cut them using the stitched circle die.
Then I added sentiments and moons and snowy elements with embossing powder. I also added some shading with alcohol markers to finish off!
Next I decided to finish each card slightly differently. Firstly a simple added with foam adhesive onto the plain card and finished with a splatter of shimmer spritz.
Next the same sized card but with a panel of green before adding the circle with shimmer spritz on top.
Next up I went with a smaller card and a layer of the white which I embossed for texture.
Finally a smaller card but adding straight onto the card base so probably the simplest!
Also probably the least white Christmas too but sometimes that’s just what happens!
Inside just added stamped sentiments and really kept them simple!
Hope you like the gelli plate little scenes!
I really love the technique of inky gelli prints and if I wasn’t doing Christmas in July I would have made loads more ready for future use as it really was so much fun. But as I’ve still got a while to go before the end of the month and more projects to make I will wait until this month is over before I revisit this! To me the unpredictable nature of these sorts of arty prints is the joy but I know those who like control struggle to enjoy this kind of thing so I know it won’t be for everyone! But if we all liked and were the same wouldn’t life be boring! 😀
Inkyfingeredcat 