Christmas Elegance {with Eclectica³ Elizabeth Borer Stamps by Lesley Ebdon}

Hi, it’s Lesley here tonight and I was really pleased when Darcy asked if I’d like to do a Guest Blogger spot using fabulous PaperArtsy products.  I decided to use Elizabeth Borer’s stamp sets EEB01 and EEB02 again because when I took part in their blog launch night I focussed mainly on the fairies and foliage stamps and this time I wanted to concentrate almost exclusively on the beautiful baubles.  As few Christmas cards using Elizabeth’s stamps have been featured on the blog, I chose to make some for my contribution tonight.

Whilst I love creating painty/inky layered and textured backgrounds using different media my current favourite card style is clean and elegant so I took inspiration from the elegant bauble stamps themselves together with Fibralo pens and matting and layering co-ordinating card, I wanted to show anyone new to rubber stamping and card making how easy, given beautifully designed stamps, it is to create a Christmas card that any none ‘arty’ recipient would love to display.

All my cards feature the baubles stamped onto separate card, coloured directly with Fibralo pens and cut out then given a little dimension with either a bone folder or any round ended tool you have in your kit (mine is an acrylic tool that came from a wire working set).

Card #1 had the long bauble from EEB01 stamped into a ‘flower’ design by masking some to give the illusion of dimension and then colouring before cutting out as a whole piece then adhering to the card top layer on the card base. 

EEB01

 The photo below shows the original full ‘flower’ on a scrap mock up but I thought it was too much so I did less bauble layers and placed it to one side on the card and trimmed it down. 

 I then stamped a few individual baubles, shaped them and layered them over the ‘flower’ with a little dimensional glue (silicone or Pinflair). I finished off with a metal flower, button and tiny bow and a sentiment from my stash (I don’t yet have any PaperArtsy Christmas sentiments in my stash ….…soon!).

Card #2 had flowers created in a different way as you can see from the photo below.  This time they were stamped and embossed with blue metallic embossing powder before colouring with Fibralos and I also created a co-ordinating card layer by scribbling the Fibralo colours onto my craft mat, spritzing with water and flicking the drops onto card from a paintbrush. 

 I dried each colour before doing the next one so the colours stayed true.  I used a full A4 piece of card for this so that I had enough to die cut the snowflakes and rosettes.  I finished those off with dabbing ‘dries clear’ glue on with my finger and then dipping them (the snowflakes not my fingers ;D) into clear glitter.

Card #3 uses the last of the three bauble stamps in the traditional way and I combined it with the lovely Art Deco mistletoe stamp from EEB02 to hang them from. 

EEB02

This time for the co-ordinating card mat I used the same method of scribbling Fibralos onto my craft mat as the previous card except instead of flicking with a paintbrush I applied it with a piece of textured natural sponge.  So simple but I really like this effect.

The mistletoe border was cut out and attached with 3D foam pads. Again the baubles were stamped, coloured, cut out and shaped before adhering to the top card layer with dimensional glue. 

                 

I hope you like my cards and that they inspire you to create some of your own if you’re like me and you’re late getting started with your Christmas cards, lol!  Thanks to Leandra and Darcy for the opportunity to appear on the blog again and if you would like more details of how I made these cards please drop by my blog later.

Lesley. 

A huge thanks to Lesley from all at PaperArtsy HQ. These cards are so beautiful, really elegant. You have shown the stamps off perfectly with simple designs and striking colour choices. Your coordinating card is a wonderful compliment to the focal designs, the sponged Fibralos is a great technique. 

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Oct 1st 2014 and Oct 31^st 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Oct 31st 2014