Moikka moi, it's Riikka Kovasin (@paperiliitin) here today with you to share my take on the "White" theme! I thought the color suited Christmas cards perfectly, with glistening snow and sweet angels, so I made a set of Holiday greetings. The quarter theme "Nature" also seemed very fitting as I could add small die cut spruce branches to the cards. In the end I decided to add a cinnamon stick as well, as I incorporated some brown tones into my white make.
At first the white-on-white seemed a bit daunting to me, but when I looked through the inspiration shots Dounia had sent to us, one project in particular spoke to me. It had this dusty vintage vibe with white and neutral tones. That got me thinking "I could do that!". I mean, my first thought with white was this clean and simple look, and that's not something I'm that good on executing. Vintage on the other hand is a whole other ballgame!
I really enjoyed playing with different textures in my cards and added three different white mediums to them. If you want to know more, please read on!
I knew immediately, that I'd want to incorporate two white acrylic colors in my cards. I chose the pure, more optic white of Fresco Finish acrylic paint Snowflake (FF15) to represent snow but also picked Fresco Finish acrylic paint Chalk (FF83) as that had that warm tone fitting to vintage make. It's also a bit more opaque than Snowflake (FF15), so that was handy, too.
For the stamp set I chose Lynne Perrella stamp set (LPC020) because of the darling little angel. When you look at the set, you could use the other elements to make Holiday cards as well - like the musical instruments or the big "Joy" stamp. The last mentioned one makes me hum carol "Joy to the world"! I guess the hardest one to incorporate to a Christmas card would be the harlequin staff... Maybe he could be turned into an elf?
For these cards I did something I seldom do, and that's to make a sketch of the composition beforehand. Usually, I just go with the flow, but this time I had a little ponder before starting. It was mainly which way to include the doily and the corrugated cardboard. As you could see from the previous photos, I accentuated the halo with the doily and added that as the top element, corrugated cardboard acting as a grounding piece.
I took this photo of the materials gathered after finishing the cards, though, so I could add the cinnamon sticks also to it. The cinnamon sticks were a later addition due to the stamp color I chose to use for the focal angel. Want to hear the whole story? Then read on!
I started the make by cutting the base elements. To enhance the white-on-white look, I cut the card bases out of milky white cardstock and backing pieces out of cream colored one. For those pieces I used my paper cutter. I made the card bases with the fold on the top as I favor that easel-style version to a book-styled version with the fold on the side. It's maybe because those cards are more easily displayed and photographed!
I also cut some pieces out of an old book. Well, I say "cut" but it's rather "tore". I didn't want the edge looking too neat, so instead of using the paper cutter I used a ruler. In fact, I traced the backing cardstock piece to the book page and then aligned the ruler to the drawn guide. This way, using the ruler, I got a relatively straight, yet torn edge to the piece. I chose to use the backing pieces to the book pages, because I was afraid that the old book was too flimsy to be the background.
Next I headed for my sewing machine and sewed the book page piece together with the backing piece. This was the second reason I chose to use the backing piece as I could add another little element this way! Sewing straight to the book page might have caused it to tear.
I chose to use a straight stitch and left a little gap between the edge and the stitch as I wanted to make the edges more dimensional and distressed in a later stage.
I also applied the first white paint layer to the project by using a palette knife and smeared some Fresco Finish Chalk (FF83) to the book pages. This was partly of getting them a tad more white but also to hinder the contrast between the black font and creamy page. It also allowed me to hide some words completely as they seemed to be ill-fitting to Christmas cards.
While the book page pieces were drying, I turned my attention to other elements of the cards. I used the same Fresco Finish Chalk (FF83) paint, but this time used a brush to apply it to corrugated cardboard. I first cut the pieces into correct size and then used a big, flat brush to go over the surface. While in places the cardstock turned totally white, I kept other places a bit more rustic, revealing the brown tone of the cardboard. This reminded me of frozen surface.
Then it was time to stamp the image. While you can see that I ended up using a brown ink in the end, I did experimented with other tones, too.
Black seemed a way too harsh to be combined with that relatively white base. My initial idea was to use grey ink, but when I tried it, the character looked a bit funny and also the design didn't show as much as I wanted the focal point to show. I guess the funny look was due to the colors being "the wrong way around". Because of the design, you'd expect a darker color for stamping, adding the shadow to the piece, but with grey it looked just off, there wasn't enough contrast.
Inspired by the brown tones of the corrugated cardboard, I tried brown ink and that seemed to do the trick. I chose a water activated ink as I knew that with a little spray of water I could add a greyish tone to the inked surface, thus maybe tying the focal element even better to the rest of the composition.
In the next phase scissors came handy! Not only I cut the angels loose to be used as the focal points, but I also used the scissors to distress the edges of the focal area. When cutting the angels, I decided to edit the Roman numerals out, as they seemed a bit too spiky the way I cut them. I also cut the robe away just leaving the ornate collar to get the character lighter and whiter.
After distressing the edges both of the old book page and the cream colored cardstock underneath, I then treated the edges with a grey ink. Again, this was a bit of a trial and error as I first tried a much lighter tone of grey only to realize it didn't show almost at all. Now thinking back, it's funny that I then didn't pick my go-to ink color brown, but instead another, darker grey!
What I also did on this stage, was to take a piece of white cardstock and cut a bunch of spruce branches out of it using a punch. Initially, I was thinking of using a die for the branches, but when I was in the crafty zone, the punch seemed a lot handier to get a pile of elements done in no time!
Now that I had my elements done, it was time to start combining them to make the card!
The fist layers I added to my base were the earlier treated piece of corrugated cardboard and a paper doily. I brushed a touch of ink to the doily as well to get a bit worn look to it. Initially, I just stapled the two layers to my card base, but soon realized that as they were supporting the whole composition, something sturdier was needed. So, I added some craft glue underneath both layers.
Next came the bit that needed the most drying time, but I was determined to do it anyway. What makes me say that? Well, as you probably have heard before, I'm quite a speedy crafter and don't like waiting when I'm creating. My usual trick is to do any layer that needs air-drying just before I go to bed and then continue the next day. This time I applied the Grunge Paste (GP190) before going for a walk and when I got back, the paste was dry! Handy!
The other reason I was determined to add it was to make a snowy element to the card. I added a length of twine around the focal area before applying the paste. I then used a palette knife to add a thick coat of Grunge Paste (GP190) here and there around the center of the card. I didn't add much on top of the doily, as I knew the thin paper would react with the moisture of the paste, but more to the corrugated cardboard, which could handle it. I also concentrated the amount on top of the corrugated cardboard piece, like there was a pile of snow gathered there. I did add some "snow" to the base as well to make the whole complete design more cohesive.
After letting the paste dry, it was then just the final little steps left! To add more nature feel and also another texture to the piece, I added some sisal fiber underneath the focal element. I just took a couple of strands of the fiber, curled them to a loose loop in my hands and place underneath the angel. I adhered the angel in place using foam tape and craft glue together, because the sisal "used" some of the tape's stickiness. To make the composition fuller, I added the little spruce branches to envelope the angel.
Then it was spice time! It was a bit tricky finding small cinnamon sticks, I can tell you! Luckily I found a bag with a couple of smaller, narrower ones and then used scissors to cut those into two bits as I didn't need a long piece to decorate the cards. To make the cinnamon stick more a part of the composition, I used the same twine to twirl around it as I had used to the base.
After securing the cinnamon stick in place using craft glue, I let it snow! That means I diluted the Fresco Finish Snowflake (FF15) with a drop of water and added white splashes using a fan brush around the card. To avoid the angel getting a flick of snow on her eye, I added a piece of scrap paper on top of her face before adding the splashes. No snowball fights among heavenly beings, please!
After letting the splashes dry, it was then just a couple of more things to do. To mount the card for one, but I also wanted to add another white element to the make. Keeping it aligned with the vintage palette, I opted for some nice white pearls and added three to each card. I really like how they shine against the otherwise matte project!
To mount the center piece in place to the card base, I used just double sided tape.
While I could have worked directly on top of the card base, sewing the piece of book paper to that, I often like to make a separate piece. This then allows me to easily add different layers and work with mediums, as I don't have to mind the base itself warping. It makes the whole creation easier and sturdier. What using a smaller separate piece also creates when mounted on top of the card base, is a lovely frame outside the focal area, highlighting it further, in my opinion.
Like the segment title says - ta dah! The first Christmas cards of the year done! You can see a couple of the cards all ready in the picture above. I made a trio of them in one go, but you could create a whole bunch with relative ease. Just work step by step, making one step to the whole batch at the time, and you get your Christmas cards done in no time!
These cards are somewhat dimensional, as my projects tend to be. If you are sending your greetings by post, you can of course leave the cinnamon stick out and use half pearls instead of the round ones to diminish the height of the creation. However, I encourage you to allow the make some dimension by adding the angel in place using foam tape or foam squares, as that allows you to tuck the branches underneath and accentuates the focal point more.
I used a sewing machine to add the old book paper layer to the cream colored backing piece. If you don't own a sewing machine, you can of course add the layers together just by using double sided tape. The sewing adds a little detail to the edge, kind of a little frame, but that's not a big detail. However, if you want to imitate the distressed edge, add the tape a bit further away from the edge that you normally would. That way you can treat the edge with scissors and ink and make that weathered and vintage looking.
I had quite a long ponder about whether to add a sentiment to these cards or not. Especially if you leave the cinnamon stick out, you might have a lovely space for a Holiday wish there. On the other hand, without any added sentiment, these could be just snowy winter cards or even an angelic greeting.
All in all, I'm quite delighted about these cards. I especially like that the background is different tones of white, but the angel really pops because of the brown ink I used. If you wish for a more subtle effect, experiment with a lighter colored ink!
Thank you for stopping by today, wishing you beautiful start to soon beginning October!
Xoxo Riikka
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