Brand Ambassador Inspiration - Stenciled Christmas Cards

Hello everybody!

Have you started creating Christmas cards weeks ago?
Or did you miss it until now and just recognized it's almost middle of Ocotber, time is running and you NEED some more quick ideas to make nice cards in no time to send out soon?

If you are one of the second ones, you should take a closer look here!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

As you know, I love stenciling!
Some people may say: "stencils are so time-consuming..." but here you'll see they aren't!
Maybe you need a bit of time for the first step - but one of the best parts of a finished stencil pattern is, you can cut it in smaller pieces and make several cards with not much extra time!
 
Time savers are: 

• Heat-Embossing all things in one step.
• Combine several DieCuts in one cutting-process.
  and/or: Use leftover DieCut pieces from previously made cards.
• Use the same materials like inks, embossing powders or embellishments on different cards (so you needn't search what fits and clean-up after using it every time again!).
  When you combine them in a new way, it's different everytime!

Let's get crafty with the first step:
I mixed some white matte embossing paste (the one I used is called "snow paste", it's from a German company) with a bit of green and blue Nuvo-Drops and also a bit of dark green Stickles. This self-made paste I put through the "In the Forrest" Stencil onto a thick multi-technique paper (140 lbs = 300g/m²), this helps to avoid warping and uneven paper after everything is dried. 

After the paste was dry I made these three cards of this single piece of paper:

1. Raised Christmas Tree

I cut a strip with a width of 6,5 cm of the tree-paper. Then I used a fir tree punch to cut out one tree, which I covered with a thin layer of the green Nuvo-Drop I used before and smeared it around with my finger. You can still see the stenciled trees there, but the punched tree was optically seperated from the background now.
I punched out several trees from a simple green cardstock, stacked and glued them together with the green stenciled tree on top.
Then I glued both, the strip and the stacked trees with a strong adhesive onto my cardbase

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment from "Simply Said Christmas" in gold and the cones from "Background Builders - Vines Winter Additional" in liquid platinum.
To finish the card, I embellished the raised tree with some little golden stars and put also one on the top (on the flat layer). 

"Raised Christmas Tree"

Dimensional Tree

Sentiment and embellishments - heat embossed in two colours

* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
2. Golden Rings 

For the second card I die cut a circle of the tree-paper.

This special die I used always cuts a circle and an additional thin ring at once.
I cut out several of the dies in one step, nested them together, adhered them with my (low sticky!) painters tape and cut.
For the card I used three of the thin rings in different sizes and a small circle I cut out in a second step. I stamped my sentiment from the Set "Rustic Wreath" and put the powder on, then I covered all three rings with a VersaMark Marker and put the golden powder on top too. I heat-embossed them one after another, so it was only one time-saving working step with only one heating time of the tool.

After I adhered the three rings and the two circles on the card, I embellished each ring with some of the small stars I also used on the second card and with one big golden star.

"Golden Rings"

* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

3. Tree in the Forrest

For the last card I die cut again a circle of the third part of my tree-paper.
This time I stamped and heat embossed my sentiment of the Set "Most wonderful" first.

Then I stacked the circle up with some same-sized circles of white cardstock. The thin ring with the pattern I placed flat around the pile and covered it with some clear sparkling stickles.

Then it happened! A big and clumsy blob came out of the bottle! In the first moment I thought, ok, this card is demaged! But then I thought: NO! I don't want to put it away! I tried to save it.

I die cut another ring of paper - why I thought, green woud be a good idea... I don't know anymore... So the second misstake was sticking around the pile... and this glue is strong! No removal possible!  
To save the card once more, I covered the green ring with the same dark green stickles I used to colour the paste to calm it down a bit. 

You now have the chance to learn from my idiocy and avoid the faults I made!

• NEVER cover thin rings with wet or semi-wet stuff when they are already fixed on the cardbase!
• ALWAYS think twice, how you can save the situation if something bad has happened!

A better idea would have been to cut out the larger ring of white cardstock (instead of green!) and leave it blank or cover it with the subtle colour of the sentiment (liquid platinum again).

But hey, it's a handmade card, it may not be perfect, but I like it anyway!

* ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I hope I could inspire you to use your stencils and the DIY backgrounds you've created in a new way. 

0It's also a perfect way when you have a stenciled paper with smaller misstakes (run outs) - cut these parts of and use the smaller pieces!


Have a great and creative day!
Greetings from Wiebke