Final Christmas Card Post for 2025!

I can't believe it's the end of 2025 already!  That was one fast year!

To finish off with a couple of Christmas cards.  The first is for Inkspirational "Cold" and Addicted to CAS "Christmas".

I've been making some backgrounds lately using the cling wrap technique (see this SCS tutorial). For this one I used Magical Powders (shimmery powdered dye based pigments) sprinkled and spritzed with water on black mixed media cs with cling wrap scrunched up on it to create my background. Love the sparkle and the texture I got.

I topped it with a die cut village and a sentiment and added the panel to a slimline card base.  That sky looks very cold and icy to me, and having the houses and landscape all in white makes them look like they are covered in snow!

For 52 Christmas Card Throwdown "Use a Previous 2025 Technique", I chose the one from May "Use Die Cuts or Punches" and got out my old Martha Stewart pine branch punch and some square dies.  It's also going to the Snippets challenge as it used up lots of bits of green cs and dp for the wreath, a scrap of dp for the background, and scraps of green and red cs for the bordering layers. 

I made a thin circle out of scrap green cs using two circle dies, then punched many little pine branches out of scraps of dp (mostly pieces that had images of grass or leaves on them).  I glued them onto the die cut circle, added it to the background square of dp, and bordered with squares of red and green cs.  Finished with a small stamped sentiment and red gemstones for berries.  It's not the quickest card to make but I love the results.

     

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white and black cs
Size - 7x3.75"
Accessories - aqua Magicals, village die cut

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - SSS sentiment
Ink - Memento Rhubarb Stalk
Paper - scraps of various dp; chalk, red, and green cs
Size - 4.75" square
Accessories - Martha Stewart pine branch punch, Spellbinders circle and square dies, red gems

Santa on the Roof and Snowman with Dog

Two mini slimline cards today, both on coloured cardbases.  I enjoy making Christmas cards between Christmas and New Year as I'm still feeling in the Christmas mood and I always have lots of free time.  

So here's one for Christmas Cards All Year Round "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and Double D "Santa and / or Snowman".  And for the NBUS Challenge (I've never inked up this stamp before and I've had it for quite a while).  I'm also entering it in : Sweet Stampin' "Christmas", The Twelve Months of Christmas "Anything Goes Christmas", and The Christmas Kickstart Challenge "If It's Christmassy, Link It Up".

I used a Tim Holtz stamp I've had for ages and never inked up. Simply stamped and watercoloured and mounted on a blue shimmer card base.

For the Penny Black Saturday Challenge "Snow or Snowmen", I got out a Penny Black stamp I haven't used for ages.  It's also for Cardz4Guyz "Christmas Critters".

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed and added to a tan card base, and embellished with a Gelly Roll Stardust pen on the snowflakes.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Tim Holtz
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, blue shimmer cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - watercolour paints

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Penny Black
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - off white and tan cs
Size - 6x3.25"
Accessories - coloured pencils, Gelly Roll Stardust pen

Painting on Coloured Cardstock

The Group of Cardmakers is trying painting on coloured cardstock.  We originally intended to use acrylic paints but I ended up using gouache.  I did one on kraft cs and one on blue cs.

I trimmed both painted images with pierced dot rectangle dies.  The kraft one is just on a white cardbase, with some white splattering (I used acrylic paint for the splattering) and a sentiment on a white strip (that happily covers up a bit of messy painting).  The blue one has a bit of white splattering and is layered on a white panel with a green sentiment, and then on a green card base.

Check out what the rest of the Group of Cardmakers and, if you're so inclined, link up a card of your own.

I'm also linking up the first card over at We Love Stamping "Red and Green" and Colorful Options "Red, White, and Green".  And the second card goes to Double D "Santa and / or Snowman".

  

Supplies:
Stamps - Penny Black robin, ? snowman
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white, kraft, blue, and dark green cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Spellbinders pierced dot rectangle dies, gouache paints, white acrylic paint

Embossed Ornaments and Red and Green Postal

Shopping Our Stash challenge is "My Sweet Embossable You".  I've heat embossed some ornaments.  It's also being linked up with The Twelve Months of Christmas "Anything Christmas Goes" and Christmas Kickstart "If It's Christmassy, Link It Up"

I stamped the image with Versamark and then very carefully with a very tiny spoon, I sprinkled gold embossing powder over the left hand ornament, tapped the excess off, then sprinkled copper ep on the next ornament, etc. and then repeated with silver and bronze. Trimmed the panel, added it to a copper shimmer cardstock base, and added a sentiment.

In real life, the image is more metallic and shiny than it looks in the photo.

Simply Clean and Simple and We Love Stamping both want "Red and Green".  Colorful Options wants "Red, Green, and White".  I went with a vintage postcard-style image.

 

 

I love vintage style and don't do it nearly often enough.  I had the Tim Holtz Festive Collage stamps on my desk from a card I made a few days ago, and thought they have quite a vintage look to them. I chose the smallest of the four images in the set as it would be easiest to keep it CAS.

I created a bit of a smooshed background with Distress Old Paper and Pumice Stone to give my focal image piece an aged vintage look. Then put it and the stamp in my MISTI and stamped with a light grey ink (Archival Hickory Smoke). I then coloured the branch and berries with watercolour pencils. I lost too much detail with my colouring so overstamped with black ink.

Then bordered with red, added it to an off-white card base, and put Glossy Accents on the berries. 

  

   

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Indigo Blu ornaments, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versamark, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white cs, copper shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - gold, silver, bronze, and copper embossing powders, stitched sentiment banner

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Tim Holtz Festive Collage
Ink - Versafine Clair Nocturne, Archival Hickory Smoke, Distress Old Paper and Pumice Stone
Paper - watercolour paper, red and off-white cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Tim Holtz watercolour pencils, Glossy Accents

Christmas Drink with Cinnamon Sticks and Christmas Trees

Peace on Earth has a mood board full of Christmas drinks (see end of post).  I chose the bottom right image and used a stamp that has a mug with marshmallows, cinnamon sticks in the drink and on the ground around it just like in the image.

I coloured the image with coloured pencils, trimmed it with a deckle edged die, and bordered it with red dotted dp.  I created the background panel with a stencil and Distress ink close in colour to the green pencil I used in the image.

Here's our Peace on Earth mood board.  Please head over to Peace on Earth to see what the rest of the Design Team were inspired to create, and then link up your creation.

Supplies:
Stamps - unknown stamp
Ink - Versamark Onyx Black, Distress Lucky Clover
Paper - white cs, red dotted dp
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Spellbinders deckle edged rectangle die, ARTplorations Christmas Tree stencil

Stencilled Brick with Houses and a New Baby Card

One Christmas and one non-Christmas today!

For Inkspirational "Use Stencils", I used a stencil to create a brick wall background for some festive buildings.  It's for a friend of mine who has little white porcelain houses that light up and she stands them on her mantel against the brick wall of her fireplace.

I created the brick wall with a stencil and embossing paste. Then die cut the houses once from white and once from light gold so that I could create the light inside the houses. I cut a narrow strip of kraft cs for the fireplace mantel the houses are standing on.

My second card is for the Allsorts "New" challenge.  A friend of mine's daughter is having a baby in a few weeks.  

I don't know if the baby will be a boy or girl so I went with colours that could be for either. As a retired librarian, I always buy books for new babies, so this very old stamp I have is perfect. It's coloured with coloured pencils and trimmed with a stitched oval die. The sentiment is also trimmed with a stitched die.

The background is made out of a paper gift bag that contained a gift the expectant mother received from her brother who lives in Sweden. I scooped it up thinking it would be fun to use it for the background for her baby's card. With green cs, I cut out an SSS thin frame die cut, and cut the same out of the background paper, then inset the green one into the background.

  

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Make an Impression sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white, gold, and kraft cs
Size - 4.5" square
Accessories - MFT brick wall stencil, Dreamweaver embossing paste, Charlie and Paulchen dies

Supplies for card:
Stamps - Kids Stamps mouse, SU sentiment
Ink -  Versafine Smokey Grey
Paper - Gina K Pure Ivory cs, green cs, printed paper bag
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Lil Inker stitched oval die, stitched sentiment banner die, SSS thin frame rectangle die

A Rocking Horse with Gifts, Red and Green, and a Metallic Ornament

Lots of inspiration from some challenges today.  Shopping our Stash "Forever Young" wants to see a card for a child so my rocking horse image seemed perfect.  And the image has gift-wrapped presents in it so it works for the Paper Players "Gifting" challenge and the Double D "Christmas Wrappings" challenge.

Stamped, coloured with coloured pencils, and bordered with a multi-patterned dps.

Then for the challenges out there asking for red and green: We Love Stamping, Simply CAS, and Colorful Options, and for Festive Friday where I chose red, green, white, and a Christmas sentiment from their list of options.

I stamped the focal image / sentiment in green on rustic cs.  I trimmed it with a stitched rectangle die and rubbed the green ink pad along the cut edges of the rectangle, then layered it on a larger rectangle of rustic cs.  I added it to a red card base and embellished the image with red gemstones for the berries.  It needed something more so I die cut some holly leaves; to colour them and give them texture, I pressed some of the green ink onto my craft mat and mixed Nuvo glimmer paste into it, and then spread that onto the holly leaves.  When dry, I added them to the card.

A third card today and it's for Addicted to CAS "Metallic".

I sponged Cosmic Shimmer glue through a ornament stencil, removed the stencil (and washed it immediately), and put the stencil back down and carefully applied different metallic colours of foil to the glue.  Trimmed the panel with a label die and added it to a copper shimmer card base.

    

    

    

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Impression Obsession rocking horse, Rubber Soul joy
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black, SU Real Red
Paper - white cs, dps
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Great Impressions
Ink - Distress Rustic Wilderness
Paper - red and rustic white cs
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - red gemstones, Nuvo glimmer paste, stitched rectangle die

Supplies for card 3:
Paper - white cs, copper shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Cosmic Shimmer glue, metallic foil sheets, ornament stencil, Sizzix label die

 

Peaceful Winter Scene

When I saw the top right image on the new Peace on Earth mood board (see it at the end of the post), I immediately thought of a Northwoods stamp that I've had for ages.  It has the snowy scene of trees, a stream, and deer.

I stamped it, then coloured with coloured pencils, trimmed it, bordered it with black, leaving enough black on the right hand side to have my little vertical sentiment also bordered with the black.  Finished off by going over the snow lines, roof, evergreen trees, and tops of the fence with a Quickie glue pen and fine clear glitter.

Most of our Peace on Earth Design Team were inspired by the same image as me!  Maybe one of the other images will inspire you?  Or if they don't, you can post an "anything Christmas" card.

Supplies:
Stamps - Northwoods, Rosie's Road Show sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - white, black, and kraft cs
Size - A2
Accessories - coloured pencils, Martha Stewart fine clear glitter

Dove's Wings, Masked Snowflakes, and a Horsey Thanks

52 Christmas Card Throwdown's Stash challenge wants us to use our stamps.  The ABC Christmas Challenge is "w for wings".  I went with a beautiful dove stamp where the dove has his wings spread wide.

I stamped the bird and sentiment on watercolour paper in dark blue and heat embossed. I watercoloured the bird with light blue paint. Trimmed the panel with a square die, and cut the next size up of square dies out of blue glitter cs. I die cut three small snowflakes out of the centre of the blue glitter cs, then layered the dove panel onto the blue glitter cs, and glued the three little snowflakes on the dove panel. I used an off white cs for the card base as it matches the watercolour paper better than white cs.

Try It on Tuesday wants to see snowflakes.  

I used a mask to create the snowflakes.  I laid it on watercolour paper, then sprinkled blue Brushos over it, spritzed with water, patted dry to prevent colour seeping under the mask, and lifted the mask.  I let the panel air dry and then trimmed it, added it to the card base, and framed it with a die cut frame, cut twice and glued together.  I had a burgundy glitter die cut sentiment sitting in my UFO box and like the contrast it added.

A third card for today as I needed to make a thank you card for a friend who took me out for my birthday.  It's going to Sisterhood of Crafters who want to see Thanks.

 My friend has a horse so a card depicting a horse is perfect for her.   I sponged a background with various blue Distress inks, then cut the die cut out of a square of white cs, layered it over the background, and added a simple sentiment.

    

  

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Technique Junkies
Ink - Versafine Clair Twilight
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, blue glitter cs
Size - 5.5" square
Accessories - watercolour paints, clear embossing powder, tiny snowflake dies, Spellbinders square dies

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - off white cs, watercolour paper, burgundy glitter cs
Size - A2
Accessories - TCW Winter Wonderland snowflake mask, blue Brushos, Impression Obsession frame die, Penny Black sentiment die

Supplies for card 3:
Stamps - Memory Box sentiment
Ink - Distress Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire
Paper - white cs
Size - 5.25"square
Accessories - Starlit Studio die, Spellbinders square die