Shop Your Stash and Get Creative!

Christmas is, by far, my favorite holiday to create for. Anything goes. Clean and simple, bold and bright, or soft and muted. Bling? Yes, please. Glitter? You bet! And of course all of the details and delights your heart can handle.

But, that’s just one of the reasons. Another? Christmas classics never go out of style! I simply love that you really get a ton of bang for your buck when it comes to Christmas supplies. Even better, you can mix in your everyday supplies and images to stretch those possibilities and avoid becoming “bored” with your designs.

Over in our facebook group, Wplus9 – Encourage Creativity Community , I dedicated a Live to creating a bunch of backgrounds and ephemera using stamps and dies. Over the next several Lives, I created a bunch of cards using what we created.

I will have several cards to share with you over the upcoming days and weeks that give new life to some of your older Wplus9 purchases as well as new. I’ve even mixed in some of my other favorite brands, because hey, we love each other like that. Today’s card is a perfect example of mixing in your non-Christmas products.

I started with that gorgeous background, which was incredibly easy to create. I inked up an image from our Poinsettia Bouquets with Weathered Wood and Evergreen Bough Oxide Inks, spritzed it with water and then stamped it at the top and bottom of a panel of Vicki Boutin Foundations paper. I added a bit more ink to a craft mat, spritzed it with water and then smooshed the panel into it. Just a bit…concentrating on the center to “connect” the color stamped at the top and bottom.

I knew I wanted to incorporate our Blue Bird Die into this card, and the pine from our Pine Frame Die along with the pine cones from our Woodland Basics Die created the perfect nest. But first I needed to create some colored panels to die cut them from. For the pine, I color smooshed Evergreen Bough, Mowed Lawn and Rustic Wilderness Distress and Oxide inks. I randomly smooshed the colors onto a craft mat, spritzed with water and smooshed a Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor cardstock panel into them several times to build up the color and intensity. I dried each layer in between so the colors would build rather than mix. When they were done, I very lightly and sparsely spritzed with Gathered Twigs Oxide Spray.

I used the same method for another panel for the pine cones. This time I used a mix of Hickory Smoke, Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain Distress and Oxide Inks and Sprays. Likewise, I needed a red panel as well. For that I used a combination of Fired Brick, Candied Apple, Festive Berries, and Wplus9 PUREColor Spray in Silver Lining, with a quick spritz of Weathered Wood Oxide spray last. I used this to die cut the berries from Woodland Basics, and the bow from the Joy/Noel Wreath Die from Honeybee Stamps.

After I had die cut all of my elements out, I added a little snow to each using WOW! Puff White Powder embossing powder. I love the texture this adds, it’s one of my favorite products to use for winter cards.

I transformed the blue bird into a little wren-like bird by simply coloring him differently. Brushed Corduroy Oxide was the perfect warm brown to use to contrast the cooler browns and blue-greens in the rest of the card. For the sentiment, I turned to Joyful Poinsettias, stamped in Nautical Navy.

To pull all of the elements together and ground them, I used the gorgeous label included in our Lavinia Layers Background Die. I simply adore the thick embossed edge featured on this die.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s project. I know I have been MIA here on the blog. The truth is that I’ve had some personal and family issues that have really required a lot of my time over the last couple of years. It’s been very difficult to keep up with multiple social media platforms. However, I have stayed active in our FB group. I go live every Tuesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. eastern. I knew I needed to keep up with at least one, and the lives are the one way I can truly interact with you guys in real time. I feel like I might finally be able to get back into the swing of things and have a scheduling for following up here with what we do in the lives. But I would love to have you join in on the fun with us over there as well – Wplus9 – Encourage Creativity Community.

Featured Supplies

Here is a list of the featured supplies used in today’s project(s) along with links to purchase for convenience. Please Note: this list contains affiliate links.

Wplus9 PURE COLOR Nautical Navy Dye Ink Shop at: WP9	Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Shop at: SSS | EH	Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun Hero Arts Shop at: SSS	EK Success CRAFT TWEEZERS Precision Tip Shop at: SSS
Tim Holtz 4.25 X 5.5 DISTRESS WATERCOLOR CARDSTOCK Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad FESTIVE BERRIES Ranger Shop at: SSS	Ranger Studio Paint ARTIST BRUSHES Brush Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Tonic GLASS MEDIA MAT Shop at: SSS
Woodland Basics Die Shop at: WP9	Gemini Junior Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad Black Soot Shop at: SSS	Evergreen Bough Distress Oxide Ink Shop at: SSS
Tim Holtz Distress Sprayer Shop at: SSS | EH	Gina K Designs Connect Glue Shop at: SSS | GKD	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Mowed Lawn Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Candied Apple Shop at: SSS
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Hickory Smoke Shop at: SSS	Pine Frame Die Shop at: WP9	Poinsettia Bouquets Shop at: WP9	Blue Bird Die Shop at: WP9
Lavinia Layers Background Die Shop at: WP9	Joyful Poinsettia Shop at: WP9	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray Barn Door Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray Weathered Wood Shop at: SSS
Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Spray Hickory Smoke Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Gathered Twigs Shop at: SSS	PURE Color Spray Mist Silver Lining Shop at: WP9	WOW! White Puff Powder Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS
Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares mix Shop at: SSS	Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares mix Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Distress Spay Walnut Stain Shop at: SSS	Honeybee Stamps Joy/Noel Wreath Die Shop at: SSS
Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cardstock Shop at: SSS	Vicki Boutin Foundations paper Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Rustic Wilderness Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Oxide Ink Pad Weathered Wood Shop at: SSS