There's a Feeling of Christmas - Yultide Gatherings

Oh this is another one of the beautiful botanical stamps from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous.  They are always a favorite and this one has some particularly festive elements that come with it. They can be used by themselves, or layered as I did with this card, to create a dimensional piece.

I began by stamping the large bouquet on Distress Mixed Media Cardstock in Black Archival Ink. Then I used my Distress Markers and a Waterbrush  watercolor it in.  As with any intricate watercoloring, there are so many colors in this piece that I didn't link to them. I just used what strikes me at the moment and don't keep track or is messes with my mojo. I encourage you to do the same. Don't get caught up in exact colors, just stamp the image several times and experiment with color.

Now, get ready for some fussy cutting! Are you glad the Tonic Mini Snips come in R and L versions? If you make this card they will get put to good use.

Now you will want to stamp the individual stamps onto Distress Mixed Media Heavystock, color them and then fussy cut them out. I will state right up front that this is quite a task. It takes patience, so put on a good Hallmark movie or something that doesn't need your complete attention and relax and cut away.

Some pieces are obviously easier to cut than others which gives you a nice break.

On this one the pine needles almost did me in!

See? Oh my word they took me the longest! When I was finished I went around each piece with the brush end of a brown Distress Marker and a very, very fine detail brush to cover the white edges with some color.

Before assembling the card, I stamped some of the music from the Music and Advert stamp set lightly in a few areas around the piece in the second image in this post.  I inked the music stamp with Pumice Stone Distress Ink and then used my hand to push it onto the paper in places so there are light, uneven pieces of the stamp. Then I went around the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and machine stitched around it with Gold Metallic sewing thread.

Once the base piece is finished, start layering the fussy cut pieces into place. I added dimensional adhesives like foam dots behind the outer pieces and adhered them directly over the matching images.

Parts of the fussy cut images will be behind some of the other pieces. I added the holly and the pinecone on the top of the card. I also added some of the Idea-ology Metallic Dots here and there for some festive gold touches.

The poinsettia is in the middle of the card and I added it last as most of the other pieces had parts that fit underneath it.

Here is that pine piece.

You can see here how it fits under the leaf of the poinsettia. I cut some of my foam dots so they would fit under the fussy cut pieces and not stick out.

The detail on these stamps is incredible!

To finish it off I tied a little bit of black and gold twine around the bottom of the main piece. I got this a few years ago in the Target $1 bin. Then I stamped a sentiment from the Scenic Holiday stamp set onto some Distress Mixed Media Heavystock and added it at the bottom. I love the font and sayings in the sentiments on that set!

The larger base piece of this card is some Kraft Stock cut for a 5x7 card, so I think since the black card base is 5x7 that I cut a piece of Kraft stock to be about a 6 5/8 x 4 5/8. Then I applied Black Soot Distress Ink through the Gingham Layering Stencil all across the piece with a Distress Brush.

This card isn't simple but technique-wise it is pretty straight forward.  It takes a bit of time so this card probably wouldn't be duplicated and I definitely wouldn't give it to anyone who couldn't fully appreciate the work that went into it. You know who those people are!  Or better yet, frame it and use it as a piece of art.
Thank you for visiting today!
Tami


I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!