Merry Making Class - Take Two

During last week's Online Card Class "Merry Making", Gina K of Gina K Designs taught a class on using non-holiday stamps to create Holiday Cards.  I've done something similar to this before but this was a unique spin and is my other favorite technique from this class (see this post for another). All the techniques have been wonderful and I still have many I want to make, but this particular one really appealed to me for the variety of styles and colors you can achieve.  I have made quite a few of this style already but I wanted to do a blog post for this.  I'll have another post for this technique that will go live on Wednesday Morning for The Card Concept where I am a Design Team member.

Today's post is for a challenge I want to participate in; the CASology Challenge. If you are new to card making, CAS means Clean and Simple which translates to limited layers, lots of white space, etc.  This is about as clean as I ever get because I stamped directly on my panel of Stamper's Select White rather than stamping and die cutting multiple pieces to create a bouquet or arrangement.  Sometimes I want to do something more complex but I also like my share of clean designs and this one fills the bill.

Gina showed us how to take an ordinary stamp and create something with a holiday feel using just the one simple image.  I made a few of these the other day using the leaves from Gran's Garden and I loved them but because of the size of the leaves, it was hard to curve the stamp around to fit around my circle or oval.  I had ordered an Altenew set that I was waiting on and it arrived yesterday so as soon as I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for this technique. The stamp I am using is the smaller of the leafy branches found in Layered Laurels from Altenew.  I'm not using any of the additional layers at all.  The stamp is already curved so I just chose a circle die that was a correct size to fit the shape of the stamp.

I traced my circle die onto a card front panel placing it more toward the top of the panel.  Then using the leafy sprig with Ripe Avocado Ink, I stamped with an acrylic block following the pencil line. This was about 3.5 times to get the full circle so I did a second set which gave me a fuller looking wreath and helped tie in that extra half stem. It was so simple and a great way to use other stamp sets that I already have depending on the look I want.  In this case I just wanted a simple wreath with lots of berries. I looked to the Papertrey Ink Mistletoe & Holly Stamp Set (NLA) to stamp the berries in Pure Poppy Ink. That set has a little group of three berries together and a single berry as well.  In the end, I covered up the berries with some Liquid Pearls and Nuvo Drops, but I still used the stamped berries as my guideline for the placement of those. I almost always embellish in "ODD" numbers (i.e. the challenge theme) you know -- 1 or 3 or 5, etc.  Even the sprig is stamped 7 times to get the full wreath.

The gold heat embossed greeting is from WPLUS9's Christmas Greetings Stamp Set which came out a couple of years ago. It's nice because it's a smaller set with a lower price point and the font is beautiful. Once I had all the stamping done, I spritzed it with some Sheer Gold Shimmer Spritz and let it dry.  Once dry, I die cut the panel as I almost always do using a Stitched Rectangle Die from Simon Says Stamp and cut another one from Gold Foiled Cardstock using the MFT Blueprints 15 Stitched Rectangle Die. I love the narrow accent mat that I get by pairing these two dies. I assembled it all on to a white card base made from Stamper's Select White Cardstock.  I considered adding something below the wreath and even considered a bow from another wreath set but I like the simplicity of this design and plan to use the bow on another wreath card.

Wreaths can pretty much be any occasion you want them to be and can be as rustic or elegant as you like.  You can dress them up with some special embellishments or simply stamp them for a more simple design.

For this card I used the Tonic Nuvo Drops in Gloss Red Berry.  I let those dry overnight and then went back in this morning to add the little highlight with Ranger Liquid Pearls in White Opal. There is a rainbow of colors available in Liquid Pearls or Nuvo Drops. You could use Tonic Ivory Seashell if you have those or even the Nuvo White Gloss Drops for the little accent. I did two other cards using a color of drops called Autumn Red but they dried more of a wine or deep rose color than red.  I like that as well, but these are the colors for the one I'm blogging about here today.  At this point I don't have a preference one way or the other and often still use my supply of Stickles Glitter Glue as well because I have several colors on hand.  Right now, my Christmas Red Stickles are a favorite for berries but I also appreciate having a choice. You could also use enamel dots, sequins, little jewels or whatever you have around.  I like the Liquid Pearls, Stickles and Nuvo Drops because they are a bit flatter and easier for mailing than enamel dots.  I love to put little pearls on my cards as well, but the drops are flatter and mail much better.  Just experiment with what you have until you find something that works.  There is not one right or correct way, thank heavens. You could also practice stamping your wreath on scratch paper to get a feel for how many times your sprig needs to be stamped to go around your circle and make adjustments from there. This is a pretty forgiving technique which is why I loved it so much.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I have a few more cards planned with variations on this technique so be sure to check back.  I normally post at least 3 times each week with new projects, so be sure to come back.