OWH Christmas Card Hop

Good morning all! I am so excited to be a part of Operation Write Home's Christmas blog hop! If you came from Jessica's blog Kinder Stampo you are in the right place, if you just stopped by to visit and would like to join us, start at the beginning Crafty Card Gallery

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it's time to get to Christmas. If you're like me you have been working on your Christmas cards for quite some time now but new inspiration is always welcome!

Today I have another tutorial for you. :) This time we are looking at "stamp lighting" using a stampamajig.
Here is the card I made for those of you who aren't interested in the tutorial (but if you make it to the end there might be some goodies in it for you ;)wink)

If you want to skip all the extras below you can head over to the next stop and see Sandy at It's a Colorful World, I know she has something fantastic for you!!

Now on to the tutorial!!

So if you have seen any of my other cards you know I really dig the masking. I used Hero Arts Sending

Holiday Cheer set for this card. To start stamp the house twice on inkadinkado's masking paper and cut them out. Then stamp the house 4 times on white card stock. In order to make sure they are straight I use a ruler to draw a line and erase it after I'm done.

Put your masks over your stamped houses. Rip a scrap piece of card stock or post it note and lay it down to mask for your snow line.

rub on black soot distress ink to color your sky. Since I didn't want a black sky I just used the ink that was left on my sponge from previous uses. If you don't have ink left over you can dab your foam on the pad once or twice and then blot off some of the color on a scrap.

Stamp the tree three times in between the houses.

remove the mask for the horizon line. Use the mask to create little hills by putting it down on an angle and sponging on the very edge. I did this twice just to create some interest in all that white space.

Remove the rest of your masks. Set them aside you'll need at least one house again.This is what we have so far.  (now is a good time to erase the pencil mark if you made one :)

 For my stamp lighting I wanted a circle but none of my dies or stencils had the right size, but you know what did?

that's right. :) another reason why Dunkin Donuts is awesome!! So I traced my coffee cup and cut out my circle. Obviously if you have a punch it's okay to go ahead and use that ;)
Now it's time for the stampamajig. Stamp the house on the clear plastic. Make sure you get right into the corner with your block.

take the plastic and line it up with the house on the background.

without moving the stampamajig, move the plastic and lay down your circle. In order to get the placement right I rock my stampamajig up a little that way it's position doesn't change and I can move my circle around. You also have to make sure your background doesn't move while your adjusting. It's a little tricky the first or second time but you figure it out lol. I put my plastic back down to double check the placement.

move plastic and stamp the house onto the circle. again making sure to get the block right in the corner.

now that your house is stamped mask it again. I try to make sure I use the same one I did the first time. This way it is easier to match up my trees. Stamp the tree on the plastic and line it up just like you did the house. Make sure you remove the background this time.

Stamp a tree on each side using peeled paint and forest moss. Remove mask and color in your house. I colored with distress inks: brushed corduroy, walnut stain, barn door, and tumbled glass.

put your mask back on (yes I could of done this step before I colored but I was too excited to color he he) and line up your snow line mask.

rub on faded jeans distress ink, remove mask

add liquid pearls to the snowy parts of the house. Normally I would use glitter but that's a big no-no for OWH. We don't want to endanger our soldiers! Add some glossy accents to the windows and bow

while that is drying we go back to the background panel and stamp our sentiment.

mount the panel to a black card base

Don't forget if you use a dark card base to line the inside with white. Sometimes our heroes only have a pencil to write with and it doesn't show up well on dark card stock. (If I was mailing this card to OWH I would also put a white liner on the top. It gives the heroes more room to write and if they don't use it it still looks pretty :)

Once your circle is dry, line it up with the background and adhere with foam tape. Here are some close ups. first is the dimension ( I try to keep mine pretty flat so that way extra shipping costs aren't incurred by our heroes.)

and the shine

here is the final card again

So if you made it this far here are the goodies First: the winner for my last OWH blog hop candy didn't claim it so I'm giving it away again. It's a $20 gift card to I {Heart} Papers

Second is a little stash of goodies to help you make those Valentine cards for our Heroes! The deadline is January 7th

The winner of this gets:

1 Amore and More Stamp set by Scrappy Cat

4 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 panels of K&Company Sweet Talk Pattern Hearts

2 of each color 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 Bazzill card stock in Slipper, Rip Tide, and Berry Pretty

2 4 X 5 1/4 white panels embossed with D'vine swirls

2 4 X 5 1/4 white panels embossed with Swiss dots

1 of each image from Inkadinkado's Animal hearts stamped in black archival ink on a 4 X 5 1/4 panels

2 of each image from cuttlebugs animals embossed on white 2 1/2 X 2 1/4 panels

4 postage stamp die cuts embossed with the valentines stamp from the cuttlebug set celebrations



6 yards of 3/8" burgundy ribbon
10 yards of 1/8" red ribbon
10 yards of 1/8" white ribbon
1 67piece rhinestone set in alexandrite by Darice
1 35 piece wedding rhinestone set in clear by K&Company

okay now to win :) Just leave a comment on this post. I'll leave it open until Midnight Sunday November 28. I'll post the winner on Monday. Please check back I'd hate for someone to miss out on the win like last time! Also the gift card is open to any winner but I will only ship the bundle of goodies within the US. While you are here, if you like what you see I'd love if you become a follower although it's not required, I do love new followers!!

Now you are finally ( I know this was crazy long) off to Sandy at It's a Colorful World for some more wonderful inspiration! Have a Blessed day and thanks so much for visiting :)