Quick batch cards

Hello, it's Fran here. I needed to make some quick last minute cards that would fit in UK letter postage rate (so no thick layers) thought I'd do it as my tutorial for this month and show how fab WoJ stamps can look even when the card is very simple & basic with minimal colouring in. Thought it'd also be nice to show how watercolouring with Sakura stardust pens gives fantastic results and sparkle too.

MATERIALS:

• white square card bases 5"x5"
• cardstock in 2 colours for the mats (mine are orange & aqua) & white card for the central images
• Stamps of your choice something that you can just colour bits of and will still look good. I've used couple of the cute Herb snowmen stamps by Elisabeth Bell & also some sentiment stamps
• Ink & black sparkle embossing powder & heatgun
• Sakura stardust pens to match your colour cardstock - I've used aqua (729), orange (705), black (749), waterbrush
• Nestabilites square & scallop square die (2nd to largest of the large sets)
• Cuttlebug & embossing folder 'snowflakes 2'

PRODUCTION LINE:Making all the cards together by doing each stage in batches is alot quicker!
1. cut out all your coloured mats and matching white squares to stamp your images on 2. Stamp and heat emboss all your images onto the white squares. Then stamp and heat emboss the sentiments onto the front of all your cardbases.
3. Using the snowflakes embossing folder, emboss all the card base fronts.
4. Selectively colour parts of all images using the Sakura stardust pens to match your coloured mats. By just using 2 different colours I can just pick out bits of the scarfs etc on the snowman to colour in using the same 2 pens and just alternate them depending on the colour of the mat. so on the blue mat I've coloured his scarf blue and on the orange I've used the orange. This makes them very quick to colour in. On the hat I have used the black Sakura stardust pen - coloured along the left hand side then quickly used a waterbrush to brush it out to the rest of the hat - this gives it a bit of shading and makes it less black and flat. I did this for the scarf as well but everything else was just basic colouring in, as only small dots/areas so shading not important.

The reason I've used Sakura stardust pens is the fabulous shimmer you get and ease of use. So that coupled with the glittery embossing powder I used gives it impact without having to colour the whole image in. Here's close up of 2 of the images . . .


5. All done. Just mat & layer your images and stick them onto the cardfronts. Here's 2 of them . . .

and here are all 9 that I made probably in the same amount of time that I normally make just one in . . .


If you're more prepared than me, these could be amended to make thank you cards for all those fab presents I'm sure you'll all be receiving very soon (the WoJ gift stamp would be perfect for this I think)!

On that note, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a stampendously happy new year!

Hugs,
Fran xx