Hello! Are you ready for another Concord & 9th Feature Friday September Release? Its week 2, and I have a new stack of Christmas cards to share with you today. Last week was all about Cozy Christmas and Snow Flurries. This week is all about Happy Plaids and Deck the Halls.

Set 1:

For my first set of cards, I have used Happy Plaids stamp set to make my backgrounds. There’s four different stamp strips to this set. Each stamp strip can make its own repeated pattern, or be combined with the other strips. The options are limitless.  I love how versatile this set is. By changing the colors, I can quickly make a coordinating background for a baby card, a birthday card, etc… this is a set I will be reaching for a lot because I LOVE making my own backgrounds.

I used my MISTI to be able to make several backgrounds at once. I decided on using three of the stamp strips for my cards. I kept the color combinations to a Christmas/Winter theme. It took a few tries to figure out what pattern I wanted to use, but once I had a pattern picked, the stamping went quickly.

To make this particular pattern, I relied on my MISTI grid sheet to help me in two ways:  positioning the stamps straight, and for even spacing. Once my backgrounds were stamped, I moved onto decorating them. I used dies from Happy Holidays Label dies to cut out several pine cones and sprigs. I made three pine cone-sprig bundles from the dies, two with a snow texture. For one snow bundle, I used an embossing ink pen and the new Lawn Fawn textured white embossing powder. I used the embossing pen to color where I wanted snow, then with tweezers I dipped each sprig and pinecone in the embossing powder jar. I used my heat tool to melt the embossing powder. For the second snow bundle, I used a snow pen. I pushed the snow pen onto a piece of scrap paper, making a small puddle of fluid come out. I dipped the sprigs in the puddle using my tweezers, then heated it with my heat tool. Once the fluid got hot, it puffed out, looking like snow. 
I die cut Happy Holidays in red and brown card stock 2 times, stacked the words together, and glued them to a white die cut label. I also stamped and heat-embossed with Brutus Monroe Alabaster white embossing powder a couple of sentiments from the Very Merry Sentiments stamp set. For the blue plaid card, I used the Holly Jolly Banner Die (free this month with a purchase of $60 or more) to die cut the sentiment, and for the red and green plaid card, I used the label die to die cut the sentiment. I glued on the pinecone sprigs, mounted the card fronts onto fun-foam, then used double-sided adhesive to attach them to A2 size white card bases.

Set 2:

It’s another fabulous turnabout-stamp time! this one is called Deck The Halls. I chose traditional Christmas colors for this above first card. I started by making a 6×6 jig for the stamping process. (Concord & 9th turnabout Instruction video link here.) Next, I stamped and heat embossed the Holly Jolly sentiment from Very Merry Sentiment stamp set onto red cardstock, trimmed the cardstock down, and attached it to the card front with foam adhesive squares.
For my last two cards, I stamped and heat embossed onto colored cardstock. For the gray card, I stamped embossing ink onto gray cardstock, and heat-embossed with Brutus Monroe Icicle Embossing powder. Next, I stamped and heat-embossed the sentiment onto white cardstock, using Sterling embossing powder, and backed it with vellum. I used silver Neutrals Glitter paper as an accent for the sentiment.

For the red card, I stamped embossing ink onto red cardstock, and heat embossed with Brutus Monroe Gilded embossing powder. I stamped and heat embossed sentiment onto white card stock,  using Gilded embossing powder again. I backed the sentiment with vellum, and used copper Summer Glitter Paper as an accent. I  used foam squares to attach the sentiments to the backgrounds. For all three card fronts, I backed them with fun-foam, and attached them to top-folding A2 size white card bases with double-sided adhesive.

I love how this turnabout stamp can be so playful with fun, bright colors, then be so elegant with rich embossing powders.

I hope I have given some inspiration and ideas on using these stamp sets and dies. Be sure to check out last week’s Feature Friday blog, (click here if you haven’t already), and I will be back next week with a new set of cards. See you then!

Thanks for stopping by!

Angelica

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