Backporch: Merry Christmas

Monday, November 23, 2020

Merry Christmas - Gledileg Jól

I have really been enjoying listening to audio books and podcasts and coloring in the evenings, and I decided this would be a great way to get some of my Christmas cards done. It doesn't matter that it takes 2 hours to do one because I'm just enjoying myself.

This card was made with a new stamp by Simon Says Stamp, Center Cut Holiday Floral. I didn't use the center of the stamp so that I could put other sentiments there. Five of the ten cards I made will go to my relatives in Iceland. I was able to do this sentiment by cutting up a Magenta stamp, Multilingual Merry Christmas. (I have three of these stamps in cling, so I don't mind cutting one up; it makes them more versatile).

I started by stamping 10 panels of Neenah Solar White 80# cardstock with Memento London Fog ink, which is a light grey/green ink. I started coloring the images with Prismacolor pencils.

These are the colors of pencils I used, and I use a hand sharpener, so that I can regulate the pencil sharpness that I want.

There are a lot of layers of color on these, and the first one took 3 hours to color. At the end, I did the last two in just 3 hours, so I found that as I did more of these, I figured out how much of each color should go down in all the places. Again, I was listening to audio books and podcasts during this time, so the time was going to pass regardless. I might as well be doing something fun at the same time.

Once they were all colored, I went back and stamped them with Versamark ink. I had left the stamp in my MISTI, so the stamping was in the exact right place. I then embossed them with gold embossing powder, which brought a sparkle and shine that I love.

Here are some of the different versions that I made. I cut the inner circles with a Die-Namics Pierced Circle Stax die. That circle was matted with gold using a die from the Hero Arts Infinity Nesting Circles. I couldn't decide on a color for the sentiment, but in the end, I think I liked red the best. I used Distress Oxides in Festive Berries and Mowed Lawn, and embossed in clear. For the gold one I stamped in Versamark and embossed in gold.

The Merry Christmas sentiment is from The Greetery. I love their Sentiment Suite Christmas set. At the end, I cut the panels with The Greetery's Crimped Edge die, and matted them with the same gold that the circle is matted with.

I worked one of my pencils down to practically a nub. I use extenders on them to make them last as long as possible. I love this!