Guess what?  No embossing folders in sight today!

These cards feature our clear tree stamps from Terrific Treescapes, Versafine Satin Red and Crimson Red inkpads, paper masks and some coloured pencil.  The sentiments are from Warm Christmas Greetings and one of our new individual Christmas Sentiments.

I cut hills from masking paper and used my secret weapon, a soft stencil brush, to pick up ink from the Satin Red inkpad and lightly swirl it onto the card.  Working on cream cardstock makes the red a warm coral shade.  I placed a large circle mask in the sky to create a sun which then became the background for the sentiment.

The reflection was created by stamping the trees onto a piece of mylar (that’s the stuff stencils are made from) then pressing it onto the card under the stamped trees.    I picked a red pencil as close to the inkpad colour as I could find and used it to add a bit of shading to the hills and some broken lines to the water.  The ivy is stamped along the bottom with Archival Sap Green.

In this second card, I used the same techniques, but added the foreground tree stamp then used coloured pencils to give those trees hills to stand on.  Again, I also used pencils to add horizontal lines to the water to suggest ripples.

I have to mention the brush I used.  Those of you who used to come to our open days when we had the shop might remember a beautiful wooden handled brush we used to sell.

We didn’t have them long before our supplier discontinued them and we just couldn’t find them anywhere else.  That was about three years ago and I’ve been on a search for the perfect brush since then.  Sponges are great, but sometimes a brush can give a smoother application of colour when swirled (not stippled) and to do that it has to be relatively firm (a pastry brush is too floppy), but have enough give in the bristles or it will wear out your wrist.

A few months ago I found a lovely brush – a stencil brush with a domed top rather than the usual flat top.  I bought one to try out and loved it so much I decided to stock them on the website.  Each time I ordered, my supplier was out of stock and I began to think I’d never see another one.  I even used it in a stencilling magazine project for Crafts Beautiful magazine, but didn’t dare reference it because there were none to be had!

Finally, on my last order, there they were, back in stock – yay!  Finally they’re now on the website – it’s the 3/4″ domed stencil brush.  I’m not saying this is the perfect brush, but I did treat myself to three more of them! I have reserved them for specific colours – red/pink; blue/purple; yellow/orange and green/turquoise so I don’t have to wash the brushes all the time.

Here’s a slightly closer shot of the second card – you can see how lovely and smooth the inking is.

So that concludes my week of Christmas Inspiration though I do still have cards to make, so I rather think I’ll be back with one or two more before the season is over. Hope you’re all well on the way to finishing all your hand made cards.