Christmas Card August 2023

To be honest, the first few months of Christmas cards this year were hard for me. I didn't have a lot of Christmas-themed products to work with. Now I do! I have preordered a few items from the September-December 2023 mini catalog. Demonstrators get to order a month or so early. For mini catalogs, we can buy anything with restrictions on how many. (EG: 1 of each non-consumable like stamps, punches and die and 2-3 of each consumable, like papers and embellishments). For the annual catalog, we are given a choice of some items--always new colors. The warehouse isn't big enough to hold everything in 2 annual catalogs.

I have been suggesting to Stampin' Up! that they offer a Christmas town/house stamp set in the fall, then add spring/summer images in the January-April catalog. Well, they sort of did this, in reverse. The Shop the Town stamp set (page 19 in the mini) coordinates with the Les Shoppes suite on pages 30-31 in the annual catalog. For these cards I only used Shop the Town. Watch for more projects from me using both stamp sets!

Both of these cards involved lots of coloring! In my newsletter yesterday, I shared a card where I used a small blending brush to 'color' the arch image. If coloring isn't your thing--then don't. There are lots of ways to use these stamp sets. Another effective way is to color only a portion of the image, like just the ornaments and star on the Christmas tree, or color just a few of the bricks on the building.

The top card was colored with Watercolor Pencils and set with a Blender Pen. The second cards was colored with Stampin' Blends, our alcohol markers.

I added color to the sky on both with a Blending Brush. The snowflakes on the background layer and envelope were made with a Blending Brush and the new Abundant Beauty Decorative Masks, available starting September 6, 2023.

No naked envelopes!

Print Recipe

Product List

New Products coming soon! Shop the Town stamp set, Abundant Beauty Decorative Masks.