Hi you guys! Today Hero Arts is having a blog hop to celebrate the 2011 Joy To You holiday catalog going up in the online store. I’m so excited to be playing along!
I had a hard time deciding what stamps to use — there are so many great ones to chose from! Finally, I settled the cling Merriest Christmas Wishes set and the Pool Designer Papers! (You know how I love pool! Oh yah!)
And here’s what I came up with!
I love playing around with solid stamps like this because there’s so many things you can do with them. You could go ahead and stamp it in a nice blue color and you’d have a sweet, tweet scene in no time. Or you could try the kissing technique. But I didn’t want to do either of those! Nope, not me. Instead, I stamped it with VersaMark ink and embossed it in clear, then colored it with inks.
Here’s a closer look so that you can see the embossing better — you gotta tilt it to get it to really show up.
And, here’s a little step-by-step on how I did it! First, I stamped the bird on new Pool Designer paper — just love this pattern because it goes with everything. (Each pack of paper includes 12 8.5 x 11″ sheets, 4 each of 3 designs.)
Then I grabbed my sponge daubers and distress inks and colored in the bird, then wiped it off with a dry paper towel. Love using sponge daubers for coloring things like this because their small size lets you put the ink right where you want it. (Full supplies at the end of the post.)
Then I kept going and colored the rest of the scene. The embossed parts made a resist and the ink easily wiped away. To finish off the card, I just trimmed it and added it to a Pool Notecard stamped with the Tree Trunks — in Soft Pool, of course! A little teal gems, some ribbon, and the message and I was done! (Just love all the messages in this set — especially this one.)
(Supplies: Hero Arts Merriest Christmas Wishes set , Pool Designer Papers, Tree Trunks, sponge daubers, Pool Notecard, clear embossing powder, and VersaMark ink. EK Success border punch. Distress inks in barn door, broken china, vintage photo, and walnut stain all by Ranger. Grosgrain ribbon from my stash. The photo overlays are from Katrina at Pugly Pixel.)
Now, remember how I mentioned a giveaway? Yep, Hero Arts is giving away a great prize (including new Pool notecards + envelopes!)! The lucky winner will be chosen on August 5th from all the comments received on each stop in the hop, so be sure to comment + visit them all!
You can comment about anything you like, but I’d love to hear about something that gets you in the holiday mood. It was 104 when I was stamping this, whew! So I listened to music and pretended like those snowflakes weren’t melting. :)
Here’s the full hop in case you’re just joining in:
Your next stop on the hop is the super talented Tami Hartley’s blog — she made FOUR amazing cards! Go check ’em out!
Joyful hopping,
Super cute card!
Super card! Love your technique and the pop of the red with the bird and ribbon.
Awesome card Lisa! I love the colors – my fav for the holidays! Great technique – thanks for sharing!
oh super cute!
A wonderfully cool card! Love the embossing idea. We are starting to make our Christmas cards now-this is inspiring. This stamp is a must have-love the trees and the dear little bird. Its on my wish list.
I love how the paper works perfectly with the cling stamp.
Lovely card.
Thank you for sharing all of the details in making this beautiful card!!
Very cute card! I really like the idea of stamping just this stamp on a pool card and then accenting with silver and irridencent mists and glitter…add a purplish ribbon,,,and whola, you have a beautiful and elegant card! What puts me in the holiday mood…Christmas music, baking, and the smell of the holidays! Put all these together (music in the background while baking candies and cookies with my son) and I am in the mood!!
I can’t even express how in love I am with this card. The colors are just so bright and cheery – yet still very holiday. And the emboss resist you did – amazing!!!!
Cute, cute Card. Birds are so in right now. I love the techniques you used. I will have to try them.
I love the cool blue in this card and my fav, the little red bird =)
Beautiful card, Lisa! That bird and branch image is absolutely one of my favorites from this release… I love that it can be used year-round, not just for holiday projects. For me, getting in the Christmas spirit is as easy as starting on my handmade gifts. I love seeing the little stockpile of them grow as the months tick down to Christmas. :)
Christmas music most definitely puts me in a holiday mood. I start playing it as early as I can!!! Thanks for a great card with such good instructions.
I love, love, love this card! The colors really pop and are fun, fun, fun. And the coloring on the trees adds lots of dimension. Thanks for the lesson.
I love the colour combination! So bright and sparkly-snow-like!
OMG! Great Card! Love it. Thanks for sharing.
My husband and I get in the Christmas mood with Christmas music. Of course a little snow always helps too.
The little bird is really cute ! Nice card Lisa !
This stamp is my fav from the newest catalog. Love your cheerful card.