winter wishes

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Hi friends! I am having such fun playing with all of the new goodies from the new All the Joy release from Simon Says Stamp. Christmas cards are my favorite kind of cards to create, and the new All the Joy release is filled with some exceptionally beautiful new products. I particularly loved the Winter Wishes set; it reminded me very much of Rifle Paper Company designs with the simplistic, but elegant, nature of the flowers and lots of options for foliage. I have created two cards to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

For both of my projects, I kept the color scheme simple and Christmas-y, with pinky reds and soft greens. When I’m working with layered stamps like this or when I know I will be using a lot of ink colors on one project, I like to pull out my ink cubes to keep things simple and to help me keep track of what colors I used on my projects! For both of today’s projects, I used the Red Berries and Green Trees ink cubes.

To start, I created a background using the stencils from the Ornament Masks set, blending each ornament a different shade of red using blending brushes onto some white Hammermill cardstock. While the stencils were still in place, I stamped the floral patterns using individual stamps from the Winter Wishes set with the Red Berries and Green Trees ink cubes. This was truly magical to see the patterns come alive on the ornaments; removing the stencils was such fun!!

Once I had finished stamping the patterns, I removed the stencils and placed the masks over the top of the blended and stamped ornaments, adhering them with some low-tack tape.I then placed the stencils around the edges of the red ornaments and blended some Sage ink from the Green Trees ink cube set. Keeping the masks in place, I also blended around the edges of the card front using Aspen ink. The tone-on-tone blending for the background reminds me of bokeh; it allows those red ornaments to be the star of the show! I also splattered the background with some shimmering handmade watercolors while the masks were still adhered, then dotted the flower centers with some dark gray shimmer paints, just to add a little extra sparkle to the card front.

Once I had created my background panel, I die cut the A2 Thin Frames from some deep green cardstock and adhered one to my patterned A2 panel using liquid adhesive. I heat embossed a greeting from Winter Wishes using Obsidian pigment ink and adding some White Satin Pearl embossing powder over the top to keep the greeting a little more muted than a stark black sentiment and add a touch of pearlescent shimmer. After die cutting the greeting using the coordinating die, I used the residual ink left on my blending brush to blend around the edges, making the sentiment die cut a coordinating soft green. I popped the greeting up with some foam adhesive, then added a few shimmering gems for one last touch of sparkle!

For my second card, I used the flowers from the Winter Wishes set to accent one of the large greetings included in the set. I stamped lots of flowers, foliage, and berries using the Red Berries and Green Trees ink cubes onto more Hammermill, then die cut them with the coordinating dies. I also stamped a couple of the large greetings from the Winter Wishes set using Obsidian pigment ink and adding some White Satin Pearl embossing powder over the top. I think this pearlescent charcoal is such a lovely and elegant alternative to the usual black sentiment!

After I had stamped and die cut all of the elements from the Winter Wishes set, I trimmed down a panel of white cardstock to 3.75 x 5″ and ran it through my die cut machine using the Burst Snowflakes EF. I thought this snowflake pattern looked beautifully lacy and feminine, the perfect backdrop for the bright flowers and foliage! I popped the embossed panel up with some foam adhesive, then arranged the greeting and floral die cuts, adhering them with both liquid and foam adhesive, finally finishing the project off with some shimmering gems. So simple, but so elegant, I think!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! I can’t wait to share more of my projects from the new All the Joy release with you. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!