2025 Holiday Card Series #3 | May This Season Bring You Peace

Hi crafty friends!  Today I am sharing a sweet Christmas card that has a special meaning in my heart… the winter cardinal.  If you’ve lost someone near and dear to you, I’m sure a lot of you feel the same way when you see a red cardinal at Christmas time.  My Gran always told me it was a sign from a passed loved one who was coming to check on us – that’s what I like to think anyway.

The supplies used:

Honey Bee Stamps – Lovely Layers: Winter Birds Die Set

     The Greetery – Botanicuts Mighty Oak Die Set

     Sizzix – Holiday Greens-Mini Die Set

     Spellbinders – Precision A2 A Layering Die Set

     Spellbinders – Crimson, Poppy Field, Phone Booth Cardstock

     Pinkfresh Studio – Holiday Greetings Sentiments Press Plates

     Copic Alcohol Markers – R89, R59, R37, R29, R14, E37, E59, G05, G46

     Sakura White 05 Gelly Roll Pen

     Spellbinders – Opaque Black Glimmer Hot Foil Roll

     Ranger/Tim Holtz – Distress Watercolor Paper

     Gina K. Designs – Black Onyx Cardstock

Mijello Mission Gold Watercolors (oatmeal-color mix I created)

     Ranger/Tim Holtz – Distress Snowfall Grit Paste

     Ranger/Tim Holtz – Distress Palette Knife

     Pinkfresh Studio – Ruby Glitter Drops Embellishments

     Simon Says Stamp – Big Momma Foam Tape

     Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue

     Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System

     Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

Creating the Card Front Background

I started the card by die cutting a piece of white watercolor paper using the second to largest die in the Spellbinders Precision Layering A2 A die set and then cut a piece of Gina K. Designs Black Onyx cardstock using the largest die in that set.  I created sort of an oatmeal-colored mixture of Mijello watercolors to give the background a simple wash to serve as a backdrop for my focal point image.  I applied the wash of watercolor paint to the watercolor paper using a ¾” Silver Black Velvet oval watercolor brush and set the panel aside to air dry.

Creating the Focal Point

For the branch/greenery, I used the Sizzix Holiday Greens – Mini die set and cut the holly branch eight time from white cardstock and the berry branch four times and glued a die cut on top of another so that all the die cuts were double stacked to give them some more heft.  I also used the branch die from The Greetery’s Botanicuts Mighty Oak die set and cut it two times from kraft cardstock and glued those one on top of the other.  Lastly, I die cut the cardinal from Honey Bee Stamps “Lovely Layers: Winter Birds out of Spellbinders Crimson, Phone Booth, and Poppy Field cardstocks; however, I did cut the base layer twice and glued it behind its counterpart for added dimension.

I added shading and color to all the die cuts using Copic alcohol markers.  The color combinations used were:

     Branch:  E37, E59

     Holly Leaves:  G05, G46

     Berry Branches:  E59, R29

     Cardinal:  R89, R59, R37, R29, R14 (white Gelly Roll pen for eye)

Next, I snipped all the little holly leaves from the four holly branches I colored and also snipped the berry stems from the berry branches and set them aside.  I took the branch diecut (from the Botanicuts Mighty Oak set) and placed it on my glass mat and began gluing all the holly leaves onto the empty branch stems.  Once those were glued into place, I began gluing the little berry branches in front of and behind the holly leaves.  I placed an acrylic block on top of the branch/leaves until dry.  While the branch was drying, I assembled and glued all the layers for the cardinal then placed a white dot on the cardinal’s eye with a Sakura 05 white Gelly Roll pen.

Building the Sentiment

Utilizing the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil System and Opaque Black Hot Foil Roll, I selected the Pinkfresh Studio Holiday Greetings Sentiments Press Plate set and hot foiled the “May This Season Bring You Peace” plate onto a scrap piece of the watercolor paper I used for the card’s background.  Once hot foiled, I used the coordinating die to diecut the sentiment.

Finishing the Design

To complete the card, I added thin foam tape to the back side of the watercolor panel and adhered it to the A2 size piece of black cardstock.  Next, I positioned my cardinal and holly branch where I wanted them to be on the card front.  After picking the two up together with reverse tweezers, I added small, narrow pieces of foam tape behind the holly leaves surrounding the cardinal.  I added Bearly Art Precision Glue to the back side of the cardinal and adhered both the branch of holly and the cardinal at the same time.  I added foam squares to the back side of the sentiment and adhered it to the upper left of the card front.  Lastly, I added Ranger/Tim Holtz’s Distress Snowfall Grit Paste with a palette knife along the top side of the branch and on a majority of the holly leaves – just a tad here and there to give it a frosty, wintery look.

For the last touch, I added a few Pinkfresh Studio Ruby Glitter Drops embellishments over all the berries and adhered the card front to an A2 size card base.  Another holiday card completed for the 2025 season!

Thank you for stopping by and checking out today’s blog post, I really appreciate it.  Until next time, happy crafting.

Happiest Birthday Ever! | Trinity Stamps + Honey Bee Stamps

Happiest Birthday Ever!  |  Trinity Stamps + Honey Bee Stamps

Hi friends!  Today I’ve made a birthday card using the Sarah Renae Clark Color Cube card #030 color scheme.  The stamp and stencil products I used are from Trinity Stamps and Honey Bee Stamps.  It’s definitely a hand delivery card with the amount of Hero Paste I used – but well worth it for the look I achieved.  Let’s get started!  

The supplies used were:

Trinity Stamps “Hey Cupcake” Stamp and Die Set

Honey Bee Stamps “It’s a Party” Stencil Set

Hero Arts Glitter Hero Paste

Brutus Monroe Gold Glitter Glaze

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks:

    Honey

    Field

    Morning

    Dusk

    Peachy

    Terracotta

Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Dye Ink

Copic Alcohol Markers –

    Yellows:  Y04, Y18, Y26

    Blues:  B93, B45, B97

    Peaches:  YR01, YR65, E97

X-Press It Blending Cardstock

Spellbinders Sunkissed Cardstock

My Favorite Things Blue Yonder Cardstock

Pretty Pink Posh “Beach Day Shaker Beads”

Wagner Heat Embossing Tool

Misti Original Stamp Positioning Tool

Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

I started today’s card by cutting a piece of white cardstock that measured 4-1/2” x 5”, a piece of Spellbinders Sunkissed cardstock that measured 5” x 5-1/2”, and a piece of My Favorite Things Blue Yonder cardstock that measured 4-7/8” x 5-3/8” (approximately).  I used tape runner to adhere the yellow and blue panels together.

For the stenciling, I used the white cardstock panel listed in the previous paragraph and used the Honey Bee Stamps “It’s a Party” stencils to create my background.  There are six stencils in this set and I used a blending brush and Simon Says Stamp’s Pawsitively Saturated Inks in the colors: Honey, Field, Morning Peachy, and Terracotta.  After my stenciling was completed, I re-used the Layer 4 stencil (the one with the stars) and placed it back onto the ink blended panel and aligned it with the yellow inking that was already completed and applied a generous layer of Brutus Monroe Gold Glitter Glaze with a palette knife all over the stencil until it was evenly covered, returned the excess back into the jar and immediately cleaned off my work surface, palette knife, and stencil.  I set the background panel aside to dry while I moved on to the next step.

Using my Misti stamp positioner, a piece of X-Press It Blending Cardstock, and Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink pad, I positioned the two cupcake stamps from the Trinity Stamps ”Hey Cupcake” stamp and die set into the Misti and stamped the images onto the X-Press It cardstock panel.  After cleaning off my stamps, I used my heat tool to dry/set the ink since I was going to be coloring with Copic alcohol markers. 

For the cupcake coloring I used Copic markers Y04, Y18, and Y26 for the icing portion; markers B93, B45, and B97 for the cupcake wrapper; and markers YR01, YR65, and E97 for the small cake portion.  I used the coordinating dies to die cut the images and also cut an extra layer of the icing from heavy white cardstock to make that piece more structurally sound since I will be applying paste to it later and the extra cardstock will help prevent warping as the paste dries.

I used the smaller icing die included in the “Hey Cupcake” stamp/die set and die cut a piece of heavy weight white cardstock to make a stencil for my pasting (which means I only wanted the negative space).  I used temporary tape to adhere this piece of cardstock to the top of my Copic colored icing die cut and carefully applied a thick layer of Hero Arts Glitter Hero Paste over the inked icing (again, using that negative space stencil I made).  I slowly removed the homemade icing stencil from the yellow icing die cut and used my fingertips and a metal piercing tool to sculpt the edges of the Glitter Hero Paste so that the edges were completed covered and to also clear the paste from the black inked shadow areas that were made by the actual stamp.  I did this until the entire die cut was evenly covered with the paste and then added some Pretty Pink Posh “Beach Day Shaker Beads” to random areas in the icing to mimic nonpareils.  I set this portion of the project aside to dry several hours since I didn’t want to smear my paste.

Once the Glitter Hero Paste dried, I used liquid adhesive to adhere the icing die cut to the top of the cupcake die cut.  I used a white gel pen to add some highlighting to random areas of the blue cupcake holder and allowed that a small amount of time to completely dry.  While the gel pen was drying, I used the “Wishing you the happiest Birthday ever!” stamp from the Trinity Stamps “Hey Cupcake” stamp/die set and stamped it onto a piece of white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated “Dusk” ink then used the coordinating die to die cut it and also an extra one so that I could add dimension to the sentiment.  I adhered the birthday greeting to the blue cupcake holder portion of cupcake using liquid glue and then applied thin foam squares to the back of the cupcake.  Next, I used tape runner to adhere the stenciled card panel to the card front panels, then removed the release paper from the back of the foam tape squares on the cupcake and adhered it to the card front and that completed today’s card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the birthday card and found inspiration for some of your cardmaking projects!  Until next time… happy making!