Joanne Wardle Project #3 Lights ....

"This has to be one of the quickest cards you will ever make. I really enjoyed this one, the freehand element is so much fun. It was so quick I decided to also include a decorated envelope".

I used the JOFY 02 stamp set, however all I used was some words and the little light bulb that is all on its own. There are so many gorgeous usable stamps on this plate that the little light bulb could easily overlooked. When I spotted it I guess you could say I had a “light bulb moment”

Start by stamping your sentiment (I recommend you do this first, otherwise you might not leave room for it)

Take a black pen, take a deep breath and with one continuous motion draw a swirly line starting top left and finishing at bottom right. (practice on scrap paper first if you are not confident.)

Next take the light bulb and stamp it wherever there are big enough gaps between the swirls, attaching them to the line. Aim for about 7 or 8 lights.

Colour roughly with pencil crayons

Now you could leave it there, and at first that's what I was going to do, but I decided that I needed a little bit of texture. I experimented with Glossy Accents (looks fabulous) and Glitter Glue, but they all take time to dry and I wanted something that was done and ready to post immediately for true last minute crafting. So I decided on dry embossing.

To make a stencil, stamp the lightbulb image onto thick card. I used cereal packet card for this.

I then used a craft knife to cut out just the bulb part. Place this carefully over a stamped bulb and emboss with a ball tool. A light box would be very useful here, but I didn't have one so I had to trust my sense of touch.

{The eagle eyed amongst you may notice that from this point on I am actually using a different card, that's because I wrecked my first one using masking tape to hold the stencil in place. No bother, it only took me a minute to get a new card up to the same stage.}

At this point I thought that I was finished here. But then I decided that making a matching envelope would be fun.

And then I had another “light bulb” moment, the lines on the envelope just looked a little “empty” and I thought that some squiggles might lift them, and these fit so well with the Jofy style. As soon as I did them I thought “oooooo I like that” and went back and added them to the card (practising on the one I had ruined earlier, of course)

I hope you have enjoyed my approach to batchmaking Christmas cards this week, look forward to seeing your interpretation in this weeks challenge, until next time.

Leandra Says: Another clean & simple creative make Joanne, thanks for sharing your ideas ....everyone will be rushing off to start their xmas cards now.

Gillian Says: A "lightbulb" moment indeed. What a great way to use the single image, I admire your bravery on the freehand sketching too. Fab posts this week Joanne, thank you.