Lovely As A Tree

Hi Crafters!

I recently attended a fellow friend & Stampin’ Up! demonstrator’s Christmas card class, where we used the stamp set “Season Like Christmas”.  This was a card I designed & created using this set:

This stamp set features a couple of festive sentiments as well as a layering Christmas tree set.  I loved this set but it literally had me stumped (yes, Dad joke I know! Haha) See, despite the stamp set being a very reasonable price, I already own two other Stampin’ Up! Stamp sets which are similar in nature - Lovely as a Tree, and Ornamental Pines (retired).  The Lovely as a Tree stamp set is one of my favourite stamp sets as it is such a versatile set that can be used for male or female cards, as well as a range of occasions from Father’s Day, Birthdays to expressing sympathy.  And whilst I had actually purchased this set originally to CASE (copy & selectively edit) a Christmas card from Pinterest (err.. will get around to that one day!) it had not really crossed my mind to use this set as a Christmas card making staple set.

So yesterday I challenged myself to use this set for Christmas cards, and I’m not usually one to toot my own horn, but I actually really really like how they turned out!

I started by selecting my base card colour theme of Basic Black, Night of Navy, Whisper White & Gold Foil, giving the cards a sophisticated and stylish appearance.  I opted for a clean, crisp design that was able to be adapted to suit differing tastes or layouts.. here are a couple of different designs I made:

I wanted the Christmas trees to be the main focal point, and the single tree in Lovely as a Tree was perfect!

Stampin' Up! Stamp Sets Used

If you do want to create a multi-toned stamped image similar to that in the Season Like Christmas set, you could stamp the image onto a scrap piece of paper first before stamping on your desired card piece, but I chose to rather ink and stamp directly on my card stock for a bolder, crisp image.  I did stamp and layer the tree 2-3 times to create a forest appearance with differing tree heights.  Another nifty idea that you can do with this tree stamp is rotate the stamp to give a branch appearance.. perhaps dangle ornaments or pop a bird sitting on the branch.. the options are limited to your imagination!

To create a more Christmassy (yes, I’m sure that’s a word ;)) look, I decided to add snowflakes.  Now again you could opt to use embossing paste (adding Dazzling Diamonds Stampin’ Glitter would be perfect!!) or sequins/ enamel dots or even an embossing folder.. I opted to stick with my black & white image and selected two miniature stamps from the upcoming Sale-a-Bration brochure (stay tuned - all will be revealed on the 3rd January 2018!) stamp set Beautiful Peacock.  They were small and perfect for snowflakes! 

One particular aspect of the cards was the layered border of Basic Black and Gold Foil that was punched out using the new Decorative Ribbon Border Punch (Annual Catalogue, page 206) and placed over a strip of Night of Navy.  I think the shiny gold layer adds a pop to the colours I selected, but as you can see on my various cards, this border can be utilised in a couple of ways to create different patterns or edging to your cards making them look stylish & unique.

Lastly, the sentiment used was from the stamp set Star of Light.

I hope you liked my selection of cards - please feel free to leave me a comment if you liked them :)

To purchase the Stampin' Up! products used to create these cards Shop Now and be sure to use the Hostess Code A9EM7V9Q in the checkout process to receive free rewards for shopping with me!

Have a lovely day!

Lorin xx