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Happiest Holidays

Judy created a fabulous, traditional-style Christmas card using patterned papers in rich reds, greens and yellows, which perfectly compliment the image of dear old Santa from the new Nicholas Claus set of digital stamps. She embellished with a fun twine and button combo that perfectly hold the sentiment tag in place.

Judy's Blog

Country Christmas

Pencils on kraft cardstock always looks great, and also works well with country themed images. I added a length of twine and a wood-look button to complete my country style card.

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Wishing You Joy

Cynthia has used kraft cardstock to give a farmhouse feel to her Country Christmas projects. It works well with just about every colour, including this beautiful, rich purple. Cynthia also used some white to add highlights and contrasting flecks to her cards.

Cynthia's Blog

Merriest Christmas

I kept things simple today with a no-line colouring image of dear old Santa painting a cute little duck, some embossed panels and a happy sentiment.

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Inside-Out Christmas

The Inside-Out Christmas stamps contain sentiments for both the inside and the outside of your cards, which can be mixed and matched depending on your needs. The die set contains cutting dies for the large sentiments plus a long, flag die for the medium words. (As a bonus, the flag die also works with the medium sentiments from the Inside-Out Birthday stamps. There's nothing like coordination!)

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Merriest Christmas

Check out these two rosy-cheeked Santa cards that Anesha created using the new Nicholas Claus set of digital stamps. After colouring the images with markers, she added some highlights with white gel pen to give a beautiful high shine.

Anesha's Blog

Deck The Halls

While colouring the gift image from the new Country Christmas set, I added some additional lines to the lid to create a checked pattern. I then cut the image with a circle die before layering it over some embossed cardstock and decorating with small gold branches.

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Tutorial - Santa By The Fire

My oldest son designed this beautiful image of Santa relaxing with a big stack of books. When I saw it, I knew I wanted to give the impression that he was sitting in front of a cosy fireplace, which meant I needed to add deep shadows to contrast with the warm glow of the flames. Let me show what I did...

1. Print the coloured image onto a piece of kraft cardstock and select a range of warm grey markers for the shadows beneath and around the image. I'm using copic markers - W8 down to W0 and a clear 0 for blending.

2. Add the darkest marker under Santa's body, feet and the book stack, then progressively shade the colour out using lighter and lighter greys.

3. When I got to the W6, I started to add shadows higher up on the image - under his raised knee, under his elbow and between his arm and the top of the book stack. Continue shading out the greys until you've reached W0.

4. Use the 0 blending marker to soften the outer edge of the shadow and blend it into the paper. If you wish, you can break up the dark shadow underneath the image with the 0 marker to add more texture.

5. I chose RV99, R89, R59, R37, and R29 to colour Santa's long johns. Place the RV99 in all the areas where the light doesn't reach, then use the remainder of the reds to shade out the colour, leaving the highest areas, such as his belly, chest, top of the legs, until last. They will be coloured with the lightest shade of red. These will also be the areas where you focus the "glow" of the flames.

6. For Santa's face and hands, I used E18, E17, E15, E13, and E11. The darkest areas will be around his eyes, beside his nose, in his ears, between and behind the hands. The lightest places will be along his nose and forehead, the apples of his cheeks, and the tops of his hands.

7. I used cool greys for his hair and beard, starting with C7 and working down to a C1. Remember that the darkest areas will face away from the light or be behind things that cast a shadow, such as his ears and nose.

8. I coloured and shaded the books with reds, greens, greys and the E series I used for his skin. Remember to add nice deep shadows for contrast.

9. To add a glow, I'm using a very warm yellow with a touch of light yellow for the highlights. The glow will be on all the high areas that are facing the fire, such as his nose, forehead, the front of his hair and beard, his legs and arms. Don't forget to add a little hint of yellow to the ends of the books.

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