{Christmas in the Air} Christmas Cards By Nancy And Monika

Hello STAMPlorations Friends! It's the time of year when we can sense that Christmas Is In The Air. This new feature post will get you in a festive crafting mood on the 2nd Wednesday in November, January, March and May. STAMPgirls Nancy and Monika are sharing their Christmas cards to inspire you.

We'll randomly draw one lucky winner of a $15 gift code from all the comments left on this post, on Nancy's post and on Monika's post. Let's have a look at their cards.

 

Here is a more detailed look at

Nancy's Christmas Cards

My 1st STAMPlorations "Christmas in the Air" Special Feature Projects!

I stamped, heat embossed, watercolored and fussy cut the large Christmas Gift image and popped up over Oh My Stars mini stencil background.

I used Distress Inks for all my watercoloring and added Nuvo Glitter Drops to the ornaments. I stamped the sentiment from Homespun Christmas. A CAS Christmas card for the busy holiday season :-)

My 1st card started out looking like this...I loved the finished colorful gift!

Christmas Gift-Large, Homespun Christmas, Oh My Stars Mini Stencil

  

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For my 2nd card I designed a glittery winter scene using the sweet Homespun Christmas stamp set for the image and sentiment. I love the many Christmas Sentiments in this set:-)

I stamped my image onto mixed media paper using a light colored Tea Dye Distress Ink so I could color over the image with different Distress Inks.

After coloring the image I added Connect Glue to the snowy areas and sprinkled with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter. Really sparkly in real life! Next I die cut the kraft card base and Cherry Cobbler layer with CUTplorations Crazy Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies. Then popped up the main image with white craft foam and Done!

Homespun Christmas, Crazy Running Stitch Rectangle Nesting Dies

 

Hugs..

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Monika's Christmas Cards

Hello Crafty Friends! I'm sharing a couple of projects made for the Christmas In The Air feature.

Given that it's already November, I kept things easy, perfect for making small batches.  Here is my first card:

I used some strong pretty paper from my stash for the background, but felt that it needed some texture. I decided to emboss it using the Holiday Words mask. As you can check out in the photo below, the sandwich I used on top of my Big Shot's base plate was:

cutting plate 

Holiday Words Mask, making sure the words were readable

pretty paper, design facing up

rubber embossing mat

second cutting plate. 

All that was left was to stamp my sentiment, add a pink dressed Kathryn and finish off with some gems, sequin and a touch of Stickles.

Kathryn And Christmas, Holiday Words
 

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Next up is the second one of two almost identical cards using the Festive Bloomdala stencil.

I chose three shades of red and two shades of green. To make blending easier, I used a couple of small make-up brushes, one flat and slightly pointed the other round with equal bristle length. The small brushes allowed me to be a more precise with applying the inks. I found the flatter one of the two really helpful for blending the leaves, the round one was perfect for the flower.

The first card had a few liquid watercolour splashes added to it. I used a pipette and they ended up being rather big hence I made a second card for a cleaner look and finished the first one off with a stamped sentiment and red sequins.

Here are a couple of close-ups ...

Festive Bloomdala, Christmas Elf
 

Hope you're having fun hopping along.

hugs

Monika xxx

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For a chance to win a $15 gift code to the STAMPlorations store, leave a comment here and on the designers' blogs (Nancy's blog here and Monika's blog here) by December 8. We'll announce the winner in the November winners post on December 10.

If you enjoyed today's feature post, Nancy and Monika will be back in January for more festive inspiration. One can never start too early making Christmas cards. Jane and Tanja will be back next month with another helping of wing themed projects, so keep your eyes peeled!

This month we are having a Thanksgiving Sale in our store where you can get up to 60% off your purchases. Check out the details of all our promotions on our store's current promotions page here.

And we're also having our 5th Giving Thanks Blog Hop and Giveaway. You could be the winner of a year's worth of STAMPlorations products! Interested? Click here.