FS621 - Season's Greetings

Congratulations to this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper Barb (aka Amisjag). I chose this card as my inspiration:

I focused on Barb's:
-holly/berry theme
-Season's Greetings sentiment
-dots

I changed:
-technique (from stencil to faux watercolour)
-grey card base
-more white space
-fewer layers


I don't know whether to call this my last Christmas card of 2018 or my first one for 2019! lol! After Christmas, I rounded up all the stamp sets I bought this year that didn't get used on Christmas cards, so that I can be sure to use them first in 2019. This fabulous Layered Holly set from Stamplorations (along with Layered Mistletoe and Layered Poinsettia) was one. I love the artistic look of the simple shapes included in this set.

I used a faux-watercolour technique by placing the 3 holly leaves on the door of my MISTI before inking them up with Lime Rickey ink, spritzing with water and then pressing onto watercolour cardstock. I re-inked just the edges with Spruce ink to give some colour variation and depth.

Then I did a similar technique with the berries, using Rockin' Red and then Grape Crush ink.

I went back and forth about whether to use the outline stamps but decided in the end to leave it as is and get a similar look to my inspiration. I stamped the sentiment with Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.

The cardbase is Slate, and I used the berry stamp to make my 'dots' around the edges with Black Jack ink. I think the tone-on-tone stamping adds some texture and interest, similar to Barb's polka dot ribbon and dry embossed background.

I used: