Watercolour Xmas Card

For the last 2 days I have been playing around with some of my stamps and watercolours. I think that I seriously forgot how much fun they could be to just 'play' with. Being able to sit down and just see what you come up with, or experiment with different colours and techniques, or strip your work back to the basics, is something that I really should make more time for. I have really enjoyed the last few days and I quite frankly forgot that part of my crafting for a little while. But never fear, I've got it back, and this time I don't plan on letting it go.

I needed to come up with a card for the Whimsy Stamps Design Team Application, and with Christmas approaching (and way too quickly for my liking) I figured a Christmas card could be called for. Here is what I came up with.




Whimsy Stamps Design Team Application Card. I have put both the inside and front of the card here for easier viewing. The inside of the card is on the left and the front of the card is on the right.

For the front of the card I have used a stamp from Hot Off The Press Inc. 2014 collection and stamped this onto watercolour paper using Stazon Ink in Timber Brown colour. Once completely dry I was able to colour this using my Faber Castell Watercolour pencils. I have used colour numbers 430 for the skin, 478, 483 and 487 for her hair, 421 for her sash, and 463 and 457 for her dress. Once this had dried (and this can be helped along with the use of a heat gun) I sprayed it with a light coat of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Pearl colour. This gave the image a really nice shimmer (almost like fine snow falling over her), which I thought was appropriate for Christmas. I have added a piece of chipboard from my stash that I have coloured with Perfect Pearls (Heirloom Gold), and a variety of paper flowers from Petaloo and D'Lish Scraps. I have matched these with a collection of Kaiser Craft's Christmas papers. I have also added a ribbon bow to the top corner of the page.




The front of the card.

 

A close-up of the coloured stamp image on the front of the card.

For the inside of the card I have used the same techniques but with a Kaiser Craft stamp of the Christmas tree. This was coloured using the Faber Castell watercolour pencils again in numbers 467, 463, 457 and 421. I have once again sprayed with glimmer mist and added some stick on crystals (Kaiser Craft) for the baubles. The gold sparkly star is with Stickles in yellow. The blue background was achieved using the watercolours in numbers 447 and 445.



The inside of the card.

I have also used another Kaiser Craft Stamp (from their sentiments ranges) and coloured this with the red and green watercolour pencils, to give it a Christmassy effect.

Being someone that enjoys more than just 1 style of crafting, I find that there are many places in which to use stamps. You do not need to confine yourself to just cards. Think scrapbooking, mixed media (such as with my last post of Holly's Silhouette), parchment craft, quilling as well as other paper crafts. You can also use them to stamp on materials, woods, glass and so many other mediums. If selected for the Whimsy Stamps design team, I will hopefully be able to display some of these techniques for you, so that you too can attempt these and have some of the fun that I have when doing these.

Stay tuned for more of my Christmas crafts as the 'Big Day' draws nearer, and I hope to see you all soon.