Winter Watercolour Christmas cards by Amanda Pink

Hi Everyone,  

Have you started your Christmas card making yet ? Please tell me I'm not the only one running late which in all honesty seems to have been the trend for me the last few years. 

In an attempt to at least have a few handmade cards ready and good to go at the start of December I've rustled up a few to share with you today. 

The cards feature some of Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous stamps used with Distress inks and they lend themselves real easy to batch making - essential (imho) when you have a good few to make.

For those of you with a very key eye you may well have noticed from the photo above that each of my cards differ  ever so slightly in size. That's often what I do even when batch making as I like the idea of making every card  'its own' even if the design, technique I've used to create them is the same. 

However, it does make the process of matt and layering /card base making a little more time consuming. So I'd probably suggest go with all the same size and maybe work in 'sets' too, for example use a focal image for one set then change it up for the next set or change up the colour palette for each set. 

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Winter Watercolour stamp set has some wonderful wintery images to draw from and I chose to use the tree this time. 

I used the distress watercolour stamping technique, a simple but very effective technique. Basically all you do is: 

Put your stamp on an acrylic block/ stamping platform, 

Ink it up with a few Distress inks colours, 

Lightly spritz the inked up stamp with water and then stamp. 

If you've use a stamping platform and keep everything as is then after the initial watercolour stamping  you can repeat the 'Ink, Spritz, Stamp' process again. 

For these cards I went with a traditional Christmas Tree colour palette of green: Rustic Wilderness, Pine Needles, Forest Moss distress inks    

Watercolour card stock, heavy weight watercolour paper is the best substrate to use for this technique. 

If the watercolour card/paper has a smooth and a texture side you can use either side but I prefer to use the smooth side. 

For the card below I used Tim Holtz Distress watercolour card.

On a a curious whim I also tried the technique on Ranger Specially Stamping Paper. This  paper is a matte coated cardstock, really smooth to the touch so I wanted to see whether or not it would accept the 'water colour stamping'.

On Rangers Speciality Paper the stamped watery distress inks did appear to pool more and stay wetter for longer than they did on the watercolour card which is more porous and designed especially to handle lots of water. 

 The stamped watery inks created some lovely effects and colour nuances once dry. 

(I left to air dry but finished off by 'setting' the ink with a heat tool- a must do when using this paper). 

Heres a couple of cards to show you the results of watercoloour stamping on Ranger Speciality Stamping Paper. 

 

Card 1

Card 2  

 This technique will never give you the same result twice, each water colour stamping is individual, unique to itself which for me is a real plus as it's what I like and prefer. 

I finished each of the cards with the christmas sentiment 'Merry Christmas' taken from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous  stamp set 'Tiny Text Christmas'.

To keep them save until the time to write and send I simply tied them together with string. 

Products used: 

Tim Holtz Distress Watercolour Card

Ranger Speciality Stamper Paper

That's Crafty! Multi Purpose Craft Adhesive

Distress Inks: Rustic Wilderness, Forest Moss, Pine Needles for the tree. Peeled Paint, Black Soot to distress the sides of the card. 

Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Archival Ink 

Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Stamps: Winter Watercolour 2 (CMS443), 'Tiny Text Christmas (CMS425) 

Heat Gun

Tim Holtz Distress Spray Bottle 

Stamping Platform 

I hope you've enjoyed my Christmas card creativity and that maybe its given you  a few ideas for making your own cards. 

Thanks for stopping by. I always appreciate your company 

Until the next time 

Take care, stay safe and keep on creating 

Amanda 

x

(ink-a-pink)