A few Christmas makes ... (posted by Claire)

Good morning, I really love making Christmas projects so I had lots of fun making samples for Lesley's recent shows on Hochanda. This morning I'm sharing 3 Christmas cards. The first features New England Winter, this is one of my all time favourite sets!

I began by stamping the image onto watercolour paper and painting with masking fluid. I gave it a good coat of the fluid as I was planning on a very messy background lol. Once the masking fluid was dry spritzed the card with plenty of water and set to with my watercolour paints to create a 'galaxy sky' effect. I used shades of blue, green, purple and pink - mixed with plenty of water and added black around the edges. While the paint was wet I sprinkled over some rock salt and then added some drops of rubbing alcohol. I wasn't sure how the alcohol would react with the water but it was on my desk so i had a go. The salt created the feathery effect in the background (I think I added a bit too much lol) and the alcohol created the circles. I left the background to dry and and then splattered everything with watered down white gesso and again left it to dry before adding some even white stars with a white posca pen. Once the background was completely dry I removed the masking fluid and watercoloured the image. I added glossy accents to the tree lights and white pva glue generously sprinkled with glitter to create the snow in the foreground. The sentiment is from Let's Get Festive.

Card number two was made using the beautiful Reindeer Landscape, another favourite (but aren't they all lol) I stamped the focal image with Black Versafine ink and used a black pitt pen to extend the landscape to each side.

I added shadows to the hills with very dilute watercolour paint in shades of blue, purple and pink. I used slightly more intense shades of the same colours to create the sky, masking a little moon. I added some snow with splatters of white gesso and a white posca pen before stamping the sentiment which comes from the lovely new set Let's Get Festive,

For card number 3 I used one of the lovely stamps from New England Winter. This was a bit of an experiment but I'm pleased with the finished card and it was very quick to make.

I stamped the pine bough with white gesso, heat set it and then roughly masked the area with a post it note before stamping the image again a little lower. Once the gesso was thoroughly dry I added some colour with watercolour paints and enhanced the details with coloured pencils. I added a wash of very dilute white gesso around the image, dried it and again splattered with more gesso. The sentiment is another from Let's Get Festive, this time embossed with white EP.

I hope you're feeling festive and are enjoying all the beautiful makes from my teamies

Thanks for visiting today

Claire xx