Festive Cards {with EEB Stamps by Designer Liz Borer}

Hi there everyone, Liz here.I’m back again with a couple of cards suitable for the time of year made using my stamp designs . Depending on the words used on the cards these could be Christmas cards or they could be used for winter occasions . I’m afraid I got a bit carried away and created some very pretty and very embellished cards , but if I can’t do this at this time of year when can I do it ?

I started by making an A4 sheet of background card to use on the cards . I used a piece of smoothy card and painted the whole thing with Pansy Fresco Finish Paint . When this was dry I applied London Night using a wet wipe and rubbed and swirled the paint randomly over the surface . It looks very messy at this point .    

I then added Space cadet in the same way , covering different parts of the card . The idea is to finish with a blend of colours all over the card .  
                

Next add Eggplant in the same way, allowing some of the previous colours to show .                                                                                                                                                

Finally add Beach Hut . 
                                                              

Now I added some stamped images to the card using lighter chalk inks so that they showed up on the dark background . I started with the Mistletoe from EEB02 and Versamagic Pretty Petunia . The stamping is not completely random – I used the stamp to create “ branches “ of mistletoe over the sheet .                 

    

EEB02

I then stamped the Ivy from EEB01, using Versamagic Aquatic Splash. Again I created strings of ivy some crossing the mistletoe and some in other areas . 

EEB01,

Using the small Star Flower from EDY09 and some white ink I added random stars over the paper and then the blobs from ESN09 and gold ink all over the card .  

 EDY09

ESN09 

Using another sheet of white card I embossed snowflakes onto the card . I cut two pieces of this to fit on the card and then distressed the raised areas with Cornflower archival ink . This made the snowflakes stand out and toned down the white of the card .  

Winter Fairy Card

When I am stamping images with faces I often paint the card first using Nougat. This gives the face a skin tone without any extra colouring and the colour is pale enough to add other colours as required . So I did this with square stamp from EEB02 . 

However when I started to make the card I realised that the Nougat did not work well with the other colours of the card . so I stamped the image onto the pale purple card that I used for the background of the finished card . I then coloured the image with pencils . To achieve a good skin tone I first coloured the skin with white before adding a flesh tone and some pink . When the colouring was done I added some glitter to the wings ( most unusual for me – I rarely use glitter ) . I cut out the image and mounted it onto gold card and then a dark purple card .  

                                                                                                  

                          

To make the card I first covered the card base with pale purple card .

I cut the embossed card to create two pieces to go across the card and mounted these onto dark purple card . I cut a strip of the background card that I had made and mounted this onto gold card . I then attached all these pieces and a strip of ribbon to the card . Notice how the different pieces overlap each other ! The stamped image was attached using foam pads .                                                                                                       

Using the words from EEB02 I stamped and  embossed with gold powder ‘ Winter Greetings ‘ onto dark blue card and mounted this on gold then dark purple card. This was stuck onto the card with foam pads. I then added some coloured pearls for extra sparkle .

                                                                                                                    

      

Ivy Fairy Card

To make the center piece of this card I stamped the Ivy Fairy from EEB01 onto lilac card and coloured the image with pencils . I mounted this onto black and then gold card . I added glitter to her wings .

                                                                                                                           

I covered the card blank with some green patterned paper from my collection of paper and then covered this with some sparkly netting . I cut three panels from the painted background card and mounted them onto gold card .   
                                   

Using the words from  EEB01 I stamped and embossed ‘ Ivy Fairy ‘ with black embossing powder onto lilac card and mounted it onto dark purple and then gold card .I attached one of the panels to the center of the card tucking two die cut lacy strips under the long edges . I then attached the other two panels on either side . The image and saying were attached using foam pads .                                                                     

The card was completed using a white ribbon bow, pearls and paper roses. I put a little glitter on the roses to add to the sparkle .                                                        

Gift Tag

I still had some of the background card left so I decided to use it to make a tag to go with the cards  ( I didn’t want to waste the card ) . I covered the large tag with some patterned lilac paper . I then cut the painted background card to fit onto the tag and mounted it on gold card .This was stuck to the tag and a strip of lace was stuck down one side of the tag . In my stash of bits and pieces I found a craft paper envelope with a small tag in it . I painted the envelope with Moonlight and cut a piece of the background card to size, mounted it onto gold card , and stuck this to the envelope .The small tag was stamped with the Holly stamp from EEB02 using the purple chalk ink. I rubbed inks that I had used around the edges of the tag . Finally I stamped and embossed using black powder the words from  ELB11 onto the tag .                                                         

The small envelope was attached to the large tag a  jaunty angle . I added ribbons to both of the tags  and a white bow to the envelope . I found a die cut flower that I painted black and rubbed gold and then sapphire treasure gold onto before sticking it to the envelope . I finished the tag with three pearly buttons .           

                                         

Finished Tag .                                                                                                   

Well that’s all for now . I hope you have enjoyed my little bit of sparkly prettiness . I’ll be back again with some other ideas . Although it’s rather early may I wish Seasons Greetings to everyone . Liz .

A huge thanks to Liz from all at PaperArtsy for these stunning cards and matching gift tag. The depth achieved by layering colours in the background is such a perfect way to begin a project. the soft colour pallette and neutral embellishments make these cards so elegant. 

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 Nov 1st 2014 and Nov 30th 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) Nov 30th 2014