Christmas is Coming....by Amanda Pink

Hi Everyone

Welcome to my Thursday weekly post .

This week time has been short (life gets in the way sometimes) so I have made a few 'CAS' Christmas cards to share with you today. By keeping the designs simple they can be re-created on mass relatively quickly. The designs are very versatile and lend themselves to being created with a wide variety of products in a whole range of colour combinations. On this occasion I have chosen to work with Distress Oxides and Distress Inks using colours we don't ordinarily associate with the Christmas season - Black, Red and White!

Here's the first of the designs

The stencil I used is by Hero Arts and it has a wreath and three different sentiments on the one stencil so you can select which ever sentiment you wish to use.

I used grey and black inks for the wreath and red ink for my chosen sentiment. I added some fine line 'low lights' to the leaves of the wreath and the letters of the sentiment and embellished both the wreath and two opposite corners of the stencilled panel with some red berries.

The edges of the stencilled panel are distressed and the panel is mounted onto red and black cardstock before being adhered to the centre of a hand cut white card.

Before I move onto the second design and for those of you who prefer traditional Christmas colours here's a sample of the same design using red and green inks.

Now for the second design. 

For this one I used one of Tim Holtz shifter stencils. Again I worked with the contemporary colours of black, red and white.

Its the first time I've used 'shifter' stencils and I have to say I'm a fan. There's no need for masking off when you use these and re aligning the stencil is a doddle.

This time I used a Tim Holtz Thinlits die for the sentiment and added some fine line 'low lights' to the trees aswell as a few white pen marks on the sentiment mount and on one side of each of the stencilled trees. 

As with the first design the stencilled panel is given a double mount, this time black and white and adhered to the centre of a hand cut white card.

I also tried out this design on a DL sized hand cut card using another colour combination which may appeal to anyone who likes the patriotic colours of red, white and blue- perhaps a good option for those of us who have cards to send to our American friends and family this Christmas 

Two simple designs using minimal products yet so many ways to change up the design to suit your personal preference.

Products I used

White Cardstock
Black Cardstock
Tim Holtz Distress Oxides: Hickory Smoke, Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Forest Moss, Candied Apple, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire
Tim Holtz Distress inks: Black Soot,
Hero Arts Stencil: Message Wreath
Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Shifter Trees
Mini Blending tool
Mini Blending tool foam 
Black fine liner pen
White fine liner pen
That's Crafty All purpose adhesive
Masking tape (to hold stencil in position)

Coloured Cardstock

Tim Holtz Thinlits die: Holiday Words-Block

Tonic Nuvo Drops
Paper Cutter / Guillotine

I hope you have enjoyed your time here with me today and that maybe I have offered you some 'contemporary' creative inspiration.  

Thanks for taking the time to stop by. 

Wishing you all a great week and hope to see you again next - same time , same place 

Until then 

Take care 

Amanda 

(ink-a-pink) 

x