Who’s ready for Christmas? Well whether you are ready or not, Christmas is coming, and that is exactly the twist in this month’s Digistamps4Joy challenge. What better time to get a few Christmas cards done AND enter them into the challenge for your chance to win some great prizes!! Remember, the challenges are anything goes and although we REALLY love to see Digistamps4Joy digital stamps used, they aren’t required. If you want to see how I went about adding in the twist to my card today you can watch the video below and as an added bonus, see how I did some old fashioned paper piercing, without a die!
ENJOY!!
For today’s card it started in Photoshop Elements, surprise, surprise!! I brought in the Poinsettia Candle digital stamp from DS4J and placed it onto a panel that was 4″ x 5.25″. After enlarging it a bit, I moved it to the top center of the panel. Then, using the text tool and a scripty font I typed “Merry Christmas” beneath the image and centered it in the bottom of the panel. In order to fit my paper piercing I had to plan ahead and keep all of my typing and image about .25″ away from the edge of the panel. This is very easy to do in Photoshop Elements with your rulers open. I then printed my panel, with crop marks, using my laser printer.
After printing and then trimming out my panel using the printed crop marks, I colored in my image using my alcohol markers. I went for a very classic and almost vintage feel by using very dark, deep and warm tones. This is an image that can be colored a variety of ways and really will lend itself to any type or style of card you want to make. While coloring I also kept my hand away front eh sentiment so I wouldn’t rub away much toner. I did this in order to be able to gold foil the sentiment with gold Deco Foil and my laminator. I also applied a generous layer of clear Wink of Stella to the colored image for some sparkle.
Now the fun part! I placed my panel onto a piece of fun foam, so I wouldn’t ruin my stamping surface and brought in my Tim Holtz ruler and paper piercing. If you don’t have the ruler or a paper you can easily just eye the holes or use a pencil to first map out where you want to put your paper piercing. Also a needle will work very nicely in place of a paper piercer. I used my Tim Holtz ruler and lined it up to pierce my paper 1/8″ from the edges. Just take your time and always keep a hand on your ruler to steady it. You can easily see through your ruler to re-position if necessary. After putting a nice pierced rectangle around my panel the only thing left to do was attach the panel to an A2 top folding red card base with double sided adhesive.
Now if you have dies that will pierce your paper for you, by all means use them, but I didn’t and I like to try and make what I have on hand work for me and share my process with you all. After previously sharing my Tim Holtz ruler in my Cardmaking 101: Basic Supplies video I wanted to share just one of the many great things you can do with such a simple tool. The paper piercing really just gives a little something extra to a very CAS card.
If you are interested in any of the supplies I used on today’s card, they are all linked below. And Remember, make sure to head over and enter a card of yours into the Digistamps4Joy Challenge! You have all month to link up and be eligible to win some great prizes!! Thanks so much for stopping by today!! Happy Crafting!!
Poinsettia Candles – Digistamps4Joy Digital Stamp
Dick Blick Studio Brush Markers – Set of 48
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Crafting While Caffeinated with Lindsay Adreon 