Day 21: The Three Trees of Christmas Cards

Are you as amazed as I am with all the Christmas cards created so far?? I am just loving this 31 Days of Christmas card series, and I really hope that we continue the tradition next year. If you have no idea what I am talking about, then you will want to make sure you check out each of these lovely ladies channels.

Throughout the month of October, each of us has been posting a new Christmas card idea for you to create. Make sure that you are subscribed to each channel so that you don’t miss out! If you hit the notification bell, you will also be notified each time a video is added.

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It is day twenty-one of our Creative Design Team video collab, and I have created three beautiful cards for you to try.  As I was attempting to plan for this month’s series, I knew that I wanted to make some “tree” cards and had intended on purchasing the Winter Scene stamp set, but, unfortunately, my aging brain made an error and I ordered the Autumn scene instead. So…instead of throwing in the towel, I decided to show you how to make some Christmas cards using any of the tree series stamps you might own. 

These three cards not only use the Autumn Scene stamp set, they also feature two of our new Distress Oxide Inks – Chipped Sapphire and Pumice Stone.  I used each of these on my designs, along with some masking techniques, to create winter scenes.

On the first card, I used a simple piece of torn white cardstock to create the snowbanks in the background. This was done after I stamped the trees in Charcoal ink.  I discovered that our dye inks do not work well atop the distress oxide inks, so you will need to make sure you are stamping your inked images before you add the background on this card. 

To create the little bits of silver on the trees and in the snow, I used our Embossing Ink Pens.  These are just like using VersaMark ink in pen form, allowing you to have control over where you want embossing powder.  I used my pen with Silver Embossing Powder to create little dabs of sparkling snow in this scene.

After adding the sentiment in Scarlet, I started to assemble to card.  The background was designed using dry embossed Glacier cardstock and Comfort & Joy papers.  The Cascading Dots embossing folder reminded me of snow and it combined well with the deep scarlet red papers. 

I had so much fun creating the snow scene on this first card, that I decided to get my moneys worth on an accidental purchase.  I remembered the many beach scenes I had created in the past on some of my cards and decided that I would continue with a few wintry scenes using the Chipped Sapphire Ink. 

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For those of you who have been waiting for this video tutorial, you can head on over to YoutUbe and watch me create all three cards.  Once you are done viewing and being inspired, you can continue reading how I made the other two cards. 

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After the first card was complete, I started on the Berry Christmas Tree card. On this second card, I masked off two inches of space using some full-adhesive sticky notes then added the Distress Oxide ink around the edges.  I wanted the look of a glowing light in the background, so I avoided adding too much ink to the center. 

After my discovery with dye inks, I decided to try pigment ink instead.  This worked beautifully to create some tree branch silhouettes on the background. I stamped each of the bent tree images onto the card with the Black Pigment, then sprinkled each with clear embossing powder and heat set the images. 

To add the snow, I again used those Embossing Ink Pens.  I brushed the ink onto the branches and used White Embossing Powder to create the look of fallen snow.  After stamping the sentiment, I decided to bring in a little Christmas cheer with red berries. 

You might have noticed that I am really enjoying these Bitty Beads this season.  I have always used items like this on my projects, but usually add the embellishment after taking the photographs for my website.  Now that we carry these beads, I can show them off. 

After the beads were adhered to the card with Liquid Glass, I set the card aside and began working on the third card.  This time I cut out a stitched square using our Stitched Square thin cuts, masked off the scene and began inking with both the Chipped Sapphire and Pumice Stone distress oxide inks. 

The trees were heat embossed like the second card, except, this time, I added leaves.  The Autumn Scene stamp comes with leaf images so that you can add multicolor leaves on your fall trees, but I wanted some leaf silhouettes on my trees so I also stamped them with the Black Pigment ink. 

If you wanted to, you could add some silver snow or white snow to these trees like I did on the first two cards, or even add a few berries.  I chose to leave mine as is for a simple silent winter scene. 

All of the sentiments on these cards have been retired.  I haven’t been able to purchase any new Christmas stamps this year, but, like most of you, I had quite a few in my stash.  If you are needed a few Christmas sayings, we do have some new sentiments on my website AND the new Christmas catalog is arriving in November so you will have access to even more! Don’t forget to join as a VIP so that you get 15% back in rewards on all your Christmas craft supply purchase.♥ 

I hope that today’s project inspired you and that you are looking forward to more Christmas card ideas in the remaining weeks. If you have missed any of the videos in our 31 Days of Christmas Cards series, you can view the entire playlist here.   I have one more Christmas card to add to the series on October 28th and I have big Cricut-ing plans for this one.  I hope that you are making each one of these along with me.   

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