In the Christmas spirit

Last weekend I joined 23 other ladies in a crafty fun weekend at a beautiful little lake called Gardom Lake just outside of Enderby, BC.  If you've ever been to this neck of the woods you know how beautiful and lush the forest are here.  To me it's a magical little place with paths meandering through the forest and log cabins that make you feel like you are miles and miles away from anywhere.  The retreat was a 3 night card making fest for me and my focus was all around Tim's mini blueprint Christmas stamps and his holiday wreath.

I created numerous embossed and watercolor cards that reflected the beauty around me.  I kept things simple but elegant using Rangers Queen's gold embossing powder and Tim Distress Markers in: Fired Brick, Tattered Rose on the poinsettia's and holly berries. 

I used Pine Needles and Forest Moss on the pine branch and on the holly leaves.  
 

For the center of the poinsettia and for some of the stamp descriptions I used Spiced marmalade and Fossilized amber.

 My background paper is by Authentique from their Tidings collection.  I love love love this paper!  I walk around telling people to feel it, which may sound strange, but if you know Authentique you know that the quality of their paper is nothing short of amazing.

My instructions are quite simple.  I cut out the watercolor paper and the patterned paper using my Avery-elle double pierced rectangle dies.  I used the largest rectangle for my patterned paper and then the next size down to cut out my watercolor paper.

I stamped the images on my watercolor paper with Versamark and then added Rangers embossing powder.  I heat set it and then put it aside.  I did this step numerous times so I could get my cards all done at once.

Then i took my distress markers and added just a little bit of color to my stamped images.  Once I added the color I took my watercolor pen and added movement to the color.  Basically I blended the two colors together.  It doesn't take a lot of color on your stamped images to get a really great effect so use your markers sparingly when adding color to your stamped image.  I will try preparing a video (first time eeks) to show you how I add color to my stamped images.

I stamped each card using Tim's Mini Handwritten Holidays stamps.

I drew on the stamp with a mix of my Forest Moss and Pine Needles markers and then stamped directly onto the card before it dried.  No worries if it dries up on you too quickly because you can just give it a very light mist of water and it will reactivate the ink so you can stamp it.

Finally I mounted the background piece onto a kraft blank card and then layered the watercolored image on top.

Although these were quite simple to create I love the end effect of less is more.

Have a wonderful day!