Batch Making Christmas Cards

I attended a work conference mid week which meant a very nice overnight stay at Stratford on Avon.  A friend and I had time to nip into town to visit a favourite shop which we call the Christmas shop but is really called The Nutcracker Shop.  Among the glitz, pinch faced elves and pink frou frou, I got some inspiration for using a rather good stag shape I have on my Brother Scan and Cut.  I spent a pleasant evening cutting and sticking Mr Stag onto cards.  The tartan paper definitely lends itself to this shape!

I didn't video this because it is so simple to do and it does rely on having some kind of stag shape or die in your stash.  To save on paper I cut the rectangle of tartan paper I was going to use as a mat first, then cut the stag head from the inside.  I stuck the stag head on a smaller piece of kraft card, matted it with the tartan paper and sewed it round the edges with brown thread and stuck the whole thing down onto a white card.  I don't usually think of Christmas cards being better suited to men or women but these have a masculine feel to them.

I then cut a thin piece of kraft stock card, stamped "Merry Christmas" onto it and poked two square brads into the ends.  It doesn't show in the pics but this greeting stands a little proud of the card because I stuck it on with 3d foam pads.  Once the cards were finished it was time to add a tiny stag scene to the front of the envelopes.  I'm still enjoying these lovely scenic stamps from Card-io.

I'd pre-ordered some Tim Holtz stencils a few weeks ago and today they arrived so I had a play day and took a fuzzy photo.  (Ooops not sure why it's out of focus!)

 On the tag in the middle, I spritzed a pale green colour through the music stencil and a darker green through the tree shapes.  Before adding a glitter medium through the sort of half tree stencils (designed to look like snow on the trees) I rubbed distress glaze over the dried trees to prevent the green below seeping up and dis-colouring the glitter.  I like this effect but it will need more play.  Maybe tomorrow.