Christmas Old and New (by Judith)

Hello everyone, I am sharing some Christmas projects with you today that were featured on last month's TV shows on Hochanda. Some of these were old projects that I made a few years ago, but I hope that you do not mind seeing them again.

I will start with a new project, where I created a background, using soft blues and pinks to represent a Winter sky. I added some deeper blue hills using torn paper masks, and stamped the tree from the Frosty Trees stamp set and the sentiment from the Let's Get Festive stamp set, using dark blue ink. Ensuring that the background was completely dry, I added some snowflakes using white embossing powder, and then used some flat-backed gems for added sparkle.

Using another tree from the same stamp set, I created an icy background using metallic paints, and on a smaller scrap of card, I stamped and embossed the tree panel using Versafine Onyx Black Ink and clear embossing powder, for a crisp image. I matted the layers onto black card, and added some small black gems. The sentiment comes from the Let's Get Festive stamp set once again.

 I wanted to create a piece of home decor especially for Christmas using my favourite sentiment from the new stamp set. I painted a chipboard heart in soft blue, adding some crackle medium here and there, and then added a vintage white paint over the top. I then stamped the sentiment in a bold red before adding the fabulous pine cones from the New England Winter stamp set around the edges. I used water based markers to colour the stamps, allowing me to add colour exactly where I wanted. A red ribbon completes the project.

This next card is an adaptation of an old card that I first made several years ago, using the Winter Birds stamp set, but I have made it in a different size. These days, I like to make 8" x 8" cards, and so the card does look slightly different from the original. I have added one of the new sentiments this time around as well.

Finally two golden oldies for you, I remade the first one, which was originally given as a Birthday card to someone. It just goes to show that these beautiful stamps can be used at other times of the year, not just at Christmas, with a change of colour. I have used the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set, embossed with copper embossing powder, and coloured with Distress Inks and a water brush. The background was also created with Distress Inks, and I have then stamped leaves from the Sunny Sunflowers stamp set, and coloured them with pencils. The sentiment comes from the Nature's Peace stamp set.

Finally a luminary, also using the large image from the Reindeer Landscape stamp set. I die cut an aperture from four large printed tags. The images were stamped and embossed onto parchment using white embossing powder, and coloured from behind. I used metal tape to join the tags, which I embossed, and aged with a little bit of black paint.

I hope that my projects have given you some ideas using these fabulous stamps. Thanks for stopping by, Judith xx