Hi friends! I have some pinky-red holiday projects to share with you today using some gorgeous new products from my friends at Honey Bee Stamps! I am so grateful to Melissa and the ladies at Honey Bee for sending me these marvelous goodies; their new Holiday Wishes release is filled with stunningly beautiful products to fit so many different styles. I recently had the pleasure of visiting with three of the Honey Bees in person at a crafty retreat, and I went absolutely gaga over the two products that I used today, including the spectacular Holiday Blooms stamp set, which was illustrated by my sweet friend Kelly Taylor. Let’s get started with the details!
I kept my color palette for both cards simple, using vivid magenta, cherry red, with pops of jewel green and crisp white. The pop of magenta amongst the red and green adds a touch of modern elegance to the traditional red, green, and white!
My first project features some Distress Ink no-line watercolor using the absolutely gorgeous Holiday Blooms stamp set. My friend Kelly Taylor is a coloring goddess, and now she’s added an illustration feather to her cap. I’m so, so proud of her!! I knew that I wanted to create some vivid watercolored amaryllis flowers, so I pulled out my Distress Ink cubes, paintbrushes, and palette. I love that amaryllis flowers come in so many color varieties, but I wanted something just slightly adjacent the traditional deep red flowers. I first stamped the images using Contour Ink onto some Fabriano Artistco Hot Press watercolor paper. I then watercolored these cool shocking pink flowers by first laying down a layer of Picked Raspberry ink, then adding some layers of Festive Berries and Aged Mahogany for shadows. I added some gold glitter watercolor to the stamens and the little dots in the center of the flowers. After I’d finished watercoloring, I used the coordinating Holiday Blooms Dies to die cut each of the images.
To add some subtle interest behind the detailed watercolored flowers, I ran an A2 panel of Concord and 9th Dragonfruit cardstock through my die cut machine using the older-but-still-stunning Damask Cover Plate die. This die impresses a beautiful letterpress-look into your cardstock, creating gorgeous and unique texture. I blended some Dragonfruit and Cranberry inks, both from Concord and 9th, around the edge of my textured panel to coordinate with the red and pink of the flowers and subtly highlighting the impressed pattern in the background. I trimmed down three thin strips of coordinating ruby red glitter cardstock and adhered them to the background, then arranged my watercolored die cut flowers on the card front, nestling a white embossed greeting from Inside Sentiments: Holidays, die cut with the coordinating die. Finally, I added a few shimmering gems for sparkle!
My second card features the absolutely amazing new Lovely Layers: Front Porch and the coordinating Holiday Add-On die set. The details that Melissa included in these die sets are spectacular. If you are like me and find these little details totally mesmerizing, you’re going to love these dies. The sky is the limit for making these as unique and customized as your imagination can dream up! I wanted to let the Holiday Add-On set be the star, so I die cut all of the layers for the Lovely Layers: Front Porch from Hammermill white cardstock and assembled the card front using liquid and foam adhesive. The embossed details on each piece come through so beautifully even on white cardstock!
Now the extra fun part: assembling all of the little holiday decorations. I chose to use the same cherry red and vivid magenta color palette from the first card, this time working with Dragonfruit, Poppy, and Artichoke cardstock. I die cut the tree and wreath from the olive green Artichoke cardstock, then cut the lights and ornaments from Dragonfruit and Poppy cardstock. I used sparkling ruby red glitter cardstock for the bows, mittens for the snowman, and the ornaments, as well as white shimmer cardstock for the snowman himself. Adding the different textures to the card front helps keep this limited-palette card interesting to the eye! I am absolutely in love with all of the details on this card, and the color palette is so festive while also being a very modern take on a classic holiday color palette.
I wanted to create a shaped card, but when I ran my card base through the die cut machine with the base layer of the Lovely Layers: Front Porch, the cardstock was so thick that the embossed details went all the way through both of the layers of cardstock. So instead of making a full shaped card, I simply trimmed down my A2 card base so that it fit behind the bottom of the front porch. I adhered the completed house front towards the bottom so that the majority of the card base was covered by the house front. I added a greeting from Inside Sentiments: Holidays, but a sentiment from Home for the Holidays would work perfectly for this project!
Now, for some fun Black Friday Sale information!
Honey Bee Stamps is offering 20% off your entire purchase through midnight on Black Friday, November 24, 2023. Not only does Honey Bee Stamps stock amazing Honey Bee-branded products, but they have an incredible collection of embellishments, supplies, tools, and papers from other companies that are included in the sale!
Well, that’s all for my projects today! I have a couple more projects to share with you using the new Holiday Wishes release that I will share next week, but I wanted to make sure you all knew about the fabulous Black Friday sale happening today. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy shopping!
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