Blogmas Day 4 - Handmade Christmas Cards

Oooh do I have a big juicy Christmassy post for you today!  So, I'd been planning on doing a step by step guide/tutorial on how to handmake Christmas cards literally for months, and on Thursday I actually sat down to make some, nothing like leaving it until the last minute eh?  Anyway, when I spammed facebook/twitter/instagram with pics of me making cards, I had a couple of people specifically ask how I made that particular design/style.  Now, these were left overs from last year, so I wasn't planning on making a bunch of them for this year, but I have made a few for the sake of this post for you :)  Anyway, I'm waffling now, so without further ado, here's how to do it :)

What you'll need

A pair of scissors

Double sided sticky tape

An assortment of card (colours of your choice)

A rubber stamp

Spongy sticky tape

An Ink it up ink pad (I usually use silver)

A Heat it up heat tool

Plain cards (size and colour of your choice)

Some Heat it up embossing powders (of your choice - I used snowflake and holographic mostly)

A piece of paper to protect your work area

Either a craft tidy or a piece of folded paper to pour unused glitter back into the tub

Step 1 - take your chosen stamp and the ink pad, and ink up the stamp well.

Step 3 - push the stamp down really hard on your chosen card for the stamp background.

Step 3 - you'll be left with this silver print on your card.

** YOU'LL NEED TO ACT FAST WHILE IT'S DAMP/TACKY **

**********

Step 4 - pick the Heat it up powder you want to use (I'm using Holographic)

Step 5 - generously cover the print to ensure it's completely covered

Step 6 - tap off the excess into a craft tidy or your folded piece of paper (then pour excess back into the pot)

**********

Step 7 - this is what it will look like

Step 8 - plug in the heat it up heat tool, wait for a good 5-10 secs to heat up, then hold it about 1inch away from the design, and slowly move it over, you'll see it change texture / colour as you go

Step 9 - take some scissors and cut out the design, leaving a small border around it

**********

Step 10 - this is what it should look like

Step 11 - cut out a rectangle of your chosen fancy paper to sit behind it, it'll need to be bigger than the stamped shape to leave a border and cover the back of your stamped card in double sided sticky tape

Step 12 - stick the stamp cutout onto the fancy paper, centering it

**********

Step 13 - take some spongy sticky tape and cut out two strips to sit on the back of the topper you've created

Step 14 - stick to chosen card, and done!

Step 15 - be very careful when putting glitter back into pot, this can happen :p

Also, have some fun with it, experiment with different embossing powders, different stamps on different cards and with different inks - each time you'll get a completely different effect, some will work and some won't, but finding out is the fun part :)

There'll be another instalment of card making in about a week with some different designs so watch this space!

This months big pixi3 advertiser is the lovely Anastasia from Fashion Ramble - be sure to head over to check out her beautiful blog <3