Joy of the Season

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge this week is to create a project inspired by a mood board one of their design team members put together. One of the photos on the board is of a cardinal. I have this stamp (source unknown), and when I saw that photo, immediately thought of it. And yes, I'm still making Christmas cards, so it seemed a perfect fit.

Because of the size of the image, I felt the design was pretty straightforward, so I did not pick a sketch from anywhere. I first stamped it in Ranger Archival Jet Black ink onto Strathmore Mixed Media Paper. I did a technique called "outside the box" die cutting. The basic procedure is to lay your die (that is smaller than the image) over the image. Mark where the inside of the die meets the image, and use scissors to cut into the image at those points. Then just slip the die under those image portions, and die cut the rest around the image.

After die cutting & embossing with a Spellbinders "Labels Eight" die, I colored the image with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. I had done an online search for cardinal photos, to guide me in my coloring. Once I finished that step, I set that aside to dry.

I cut a piece of patterned paper from my scrap stash to 4.5x7", the size of my folded card base. I felt that, even with the subtle pattern, it would compete with the greeting too much if I stamped directly on it. So I stamped the greeting (from this Hero Arts set) onto a strip of vellum instead, using Versafine Onyx Black ink, and heat embossed it with Recollections Detail Clear embossing powder. I used the heart stamp from this Simon Says Stamp set for the hearts on the greeting strip, stamping them in Stampabilities "Cherry Red" pigment ink and clear heat embossing them.

To finish the card, I glued the focal panel to the card front. I ran the vellum strip through my Xyron Sticker Maker to apply adhesive to the back, and adhered that towards the bottom of the front, wrapping the ends around to the back. Finally, I adhered the completed card front to my base.