Sending Christmas Wishes with Ashley

Hello everyone! It’s Ashley with a new post in my series on ink blending! Today I have a brand new card using one stencil and a few inks to get a beautiful blended background scene.

I just love making holiday cards, and this year I am all about nontraditional colors. I went super bright for my card today!

Oh! They are just too cute! Penguins are my favorite!

Before I got to inking up the background, I stamped a few trees from Wanna Build a Snowman in Lawn Fawn Jet Black ink and masked them with Heffy Memo Tape to keep them white for Copic coloring later. I grabbed my First Snow stencil and lined up one edge where I wanted the sky to meet the ground and taped it in place with Heffy Memo Tape. Can you tell I love this stuff? It’s so versatile!

Now let’s get inky! I used Scattered Straw Distress Oxide and a blending brush to softly add color to the edge of the stencil. I usually start on the stencil with my brush and blend up onto the paper for a smooth transition.

I left the stencil in place and switched to Broken China Distress Oxide ink. I also grabbed a clean brush – I have one brush for each color family. I’m really bad at remembering to clean my brushes after each crafting session so this helps keep me from getting muddy colors. This time, I started off the paper with the Broken China and blended down towards the yellow. I used a really light hand to keep the color from getting too saturated.

Once I was happy with the sky, I moved onto the snow drifts. I reached for Milled Lavender Distress Oxide and moved the stencil down bit by bit, flipping and shifting it at each layer for a different look. Make sure to wipe the stencil edge off before putting it back on the card for a new layer to avoid ink transfer.

I finished the background off with a bit of Milled Lavender along the bottom edge and corners before removing the masks and die cutting with a stitched rectangle.

Now it’s time to build our scene! I colored the trees with Copic markers and added a bit of clear Nuvo drops to the ornaments for shine. I stamped several images from Wanna Build a Snowman, Yappy Happy Mail, and Santa’s Village in Lawn Fawn Jet Black ink and colored with Copics. I added a few details with white and glitter gel pens too!

I moved the sentiment around until I figured out how I wanted it laid out, then stamped the first part in VersaFine Onyx Black and embossed with clear. I stamped the “wishes” in VersaMark and embossed with gold glitter. I really wanted the “Christmas” to stand out so I die cut it four times from white cardstock and once from gold glitter cardstock for a nice, thick embellishment.

I added my adorable penguins and mailbox to the card, popping the front two penguins up with foam squares for extra dimension. I finished with a jeweled star above the “i” in Christmas. That may be because I lost track of all the little dots, but I think it’s a nice touch!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a wonderful day!