A New Look!

Well now that I have spent the better part of an hour and a half giving my page a new look I think I shall start my day and finish the project I started yesterday. Homeade Christmas cards to send to friends and family. I am crazy about owls! So when I found a cute little owl stamp with a santa hat I knew that would be my Christmas card this year. I printed them on left over card stock cards from another project and will use the envelopes from that project as well. Sealing them on the back with a sticker. I'm off to take pictures and finish the project. More later today! :)

These are all the things you will need to get started.
Some things pictured are things that didnt work out in the long run. I will get to those as we go along.
White cardstock cards (whatever size according to your envelopes)
White envelopes
A black ink pad
Acrylic clear stamp pads
Clear acrylic stamps
Scratch paper or cards
Glitter (I used Martha Stewart glitter and glue)
Fine tipped glue

Before you begin make sure you have all your supplies around you and have plenty of room to work. This will be important once you begin and start the assembly line process for making your cards.

This give you and example of how important it is to have scratch paper or extra cards around so you can practice and see how things will look before you put the stamp down on the cards that will be the finished product.

If you have all your supplies about you it is easier to stamp in a assembly line fashion and with fewer mistakes as you go. You will probably be surprised how much quicker the work will go if you do all of one thing to each card you will print instead of trying to place each element on the card at one time. I have found that I tend to get less bored with the process and make less mistakes when I place all of one element and then go back and start with the next. Not to mention you are cleaning your work space as you go. How you say? Well, when you have placed all of one particular element on your card you are done with that tool and can put it away in it's proper place for use another time. Therefore, you are adding more space to your work area as you go! You'll see I promise!

Always make sure to place your stamp on the pad evenly and to press all spots to get even ink coverage over all the stamp. With acrylic clear stamps it is easier because you can see through the stamp and many times can tell how much ink is already on the stamp before you even lift from the pad.

Place the stamp where you want it to go. In this case in the upper left corner. Don't press until you are sure you have your fingers in the proper places to get an even stamp.

Next you will go with the owl and use the same method as with the above stamp

After stamping all of my cards I decided my color elements would come from colored pencils. This is a finished card after I added the colors I wanted.

Now for what not to do and where the Martha Stewart glitters came in. While I love her glitters and in my book they are about the best ones on the market the lines in this stamp were just too close to use even her fine tip glue and have a clear image. I had in my mind just how I wanted this to look but when I tried it you see what I got! So I will stick to using these wonderful glitters with larger projects. If you will notice on the right hand side of the glittered card there is another don't. I started out with a copper colored stamp and while it was very pretty and nice and sparkly you couldn't see the image clearly enough to make out what it was. That is why I moved to a black stamp. Brown would have worked nicely as well.

The only other element I added to these cards is on the back of the card I stamped handmade by yours truly. I took a trip to Micheals today and found a perfect little stamp that said just that! I bought it for only $1.00 and know it will be used for many things to come. To finish the cards I will sign them with a red felt pen, address them, place a sticker on the back to seal and send them off to family and friends!
I hope you have gotten something from this little example of a little handmade goodie from Candielou!
See Y'all next time I promise!