Be afraid...

Be very afraid! ;)
Yup, I've started my Christmas cards! No, no... you're in the right place, I promise!
I'm not entirely certain what happened - this is *not* my usual M.O. at all. It must have started when I bought the new Holiday Cards magazine. Lots of eye candy in there!
I was bitten by the bug, you know - the bug that says "I can do that!" when really you should know better. *lol* Yes, I found a couple of cards that called to me and I thought I could give them my own spin. Let's just say that they were massive failures - but they led to cards that were my own design - so not totally worthless. :)
In fact, one of the cards that I was trying to CASE was used for pieces to make this first card. As you can see, this card is very CAS. A style I greatly admire and only get right once in a blue moon!
I recently saw a short video about 'painting' with pigment ink by Anna Wight and used the technique here. First the trees were stamped and before they dried I ran the water brush from the stamped lines toward the inside of the tree. The trees in front were give an extra coat of ink to add depth. If you look closely you can see a bit of stickles on the treetops and on the star, as well as some clear glitter pen over the sentiment and the ornaments in the trees. (all stamps were from a clear Hero Arts set) Fairly simple and CAS, no?
This next card uses my very favorite angel stamp from Clear Art Stamps. You may remember that I used her for my favorite card last year - she's still a favorite stamp! What a difference it makes to stamp in silver - it doesn't photograph well, but it's stunning IRL.
The background stamp (from Hero Arts) was stamped with VersaMark on medium blue c/s. After it was dry I used my Scor It to add score lines to the top and bottom. The angel was stamped with silver Colorbox ink on white c/s (does that stuff *ever* dry all the way??) and cut to size. I added the ribbon with a technique I learned at Archivers (it uses the tiny attacher from Tim - it's so easy I can't believe I didn't think of it myself!) and the gem before deciding to add the sentiment that comes with the angel. *sigh* When I tried to add the sentiment, the bulk of the ribbon & gem wouldn't allow good contact between the stamp & the paper. I had to get a little creative - hence the sentiment is popped up on a small piece of blue c/s and edged in silver. Just another opportunity to embellish, right?! ;)
While neither of these cards is destined to become this year's favorite, I'm still feeling awful proud of getting a head start! Have *you* started yet? :D
One more piece of news: if you like the digi stamps I've been using from A Day for Daisies you should head over to CDAC and join the group. Tammy is *giving* you a free stamp of your choice when you join! Not only that, but if you sign up for her newsletter she will send you a *second* stamp for free! At least go have a look - she comes out with fantastic designs every week! Hope to see you there!
Thanks for dropping by!