One Stamp - Eight Cards

It's been a while since I blogged, but that's what comes of making so many of my gifts at this time of year; they can't be shared without spoiling the surprise.  At least after Christmas I shall have plenty to post.  I had eight cards to make for a great group of ladies who craft with me regularly, so I decided to use the same stamp for each card, but shake up the colour scheme and finish.  These are just four of the finished cards, but as you will see from the toppers, each one was unique.

I started with eight sheets of Sheena's Stamping card; cut a 9.9cm strip from one end and made a DL card with the remaining 21cm x 19.8cm piece.  On each of the offcuts I stamped the Woodware Graffiti Christmas stamp in Black Onyx Versafine ink and heat embossed using Holographic embossing powder for a little festive sparkle. I then trimmed along the top and the bottom of the stamped image, leaving a narrow border all round.

As I wanted each topper to be unique, I chose two colour combinations of Distress inks and marker pens; Lucky Clover and Candied Apple and also Mermaid Lagoon and Wilted Violet - all colours from the 2015 new distress colours.  On four of the toppers I coloured the individual letters of the word Christmas, alternating colours and starting with a different colour each time.






For the remaining four toppers, I used the Claritystamp stencil brushes and the corresponding distress ink pads to sweep two colours across the stamped image; this time alternating the top and bottom colour.
As I only had three of the same size stencil brush, I had to wash one to use with the Wilted Violet.  It wasn't completely dry when I used it and the moisture caused the purple to react with the Mermaid Lagoon, creating the gorgeous blue colour which can be seen along the centre of the image each time.
Once I was happy, I matted each topper onto black card, leaving a narrow border top and bottom and mounted it onto one of the DL cards using foam tape for added dimension.  A stamped sentiment inside each card completed the job.  Merry Christmas ladies; you know who you are, but you won't know which card is yours until you open it!