Winter greetings to everyone! We had our very first snow of the season here, in Stony Plain, Alberta, last night and everything here is very “fresh”, very “pretty” and very “clean”. These are the “good parts” of snow.  It also makes everybody “panic” and Christmas seems to officially begin as we try to get Christmas lights and decorations on the outsides of our homes before it is “simply too cold” to do that. This is good too.  As Canadians we tend to hibernate in the cold winter months and that of course simply equals “more stamping & scrapbooking time” …. gotta love that. Truly the only part of snow that “wrecks its reputation” is that we can’t get it to not to snow on the sidewalks and the roads. This is a drawback that I never get used to. If only I could tell it where to “land” and it would go there … then ALL would be good.

So here comes the snow and here that means Christmas is on its way.  Of course I am going to share with you a Christmas card and a Christmas tag because the snow is “here” and that means Christmas is truly on its way. LOOK, what we can make with a gorgeous poinsettia stamp from Magenta, a Clearsnap, “Rollagraph” wheel and Colorbox, pigment based ink. When you create things like this to share with your loved ones and they are going to  bring them out year to year using pigment based ink simply makes sense. Pigment based ink is the most archival and the most lightfast of all the styles of ink and because you want these projects to remain as bright & colorful as the day you made them …. pigment ink is the ink you NEED.

To create these projects I began by using my “Rollagraph” wheel, holly border in a very loose and fun way. Think of the “Rollagraph” wheel as a brayer with an image stuck to it. Then you will feel comfortable, rolling back & forth & back & forth, along the same path, simply applying ink over your project. This is the “Rollagraph” version of my “stamp smoosh” technique. Again, you are thinking applicator and not image when you execute this idea. It looks like this:

I did use my “Colorbox” stylus & white foam tips to add extra color after I “Rollagraph smooshed” my images across the tag and the panel. I was using my “pigment petal points” and my full size pigment stamp pads from Clearsnap to ink my Rollagraph wheel. Pigment ink is my favourite type of ink to use for my projects because it is the most lightfast and the most archival ink out there. I love that my projects have longevity so that my creations can be taken out and enjoyed from year to year because the colors stay true. The pigment colors used for the tag and the card front are sunflower, amber & moss green, two of which are found in the Tuscany pigment petal point. Of course when inking a Rollagraph wheel, a full size pad is quicker but it is entirely possible to ink the Rollagraph wheel with a smaller size stamp pad.

Over roll both your tag & card panel with the same holly border, Rollagraph and the chianti, pigment pad. Then repeat with the hunter green, pigment pad. Both of these colors are available in the Tuscany, pigment, petal point or as full size pads. When you over roll, continue in the same “Rollagraph smoosh” way.

To create the 3D poinsettia (from Magenta) I used my favorite, “repositioner”. The “Cathie Allan, Position-it” is my positioner & repositioner, tool of choice because not only is it “2 tools” in one but the positioning parts are thicker and non-slip. We made the board larger so you can work on “larger projects” and we add extra “sub-positioners” so you are not restricted to working in the corner of your project when you are using the tool in the “repositioner format”. You can order one thru “Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine” and then you too can break down “all the stamping barriers”. You need a tool that allows you to stamp in the same place over & over again because I wanted to stamp the image with blackbird, Fluid Chalk (a blend of pigment & dye ink) as a second value (this dries very quickly and then I add color using my Colorbox stylus and white foam tips, a cotton swab and my Colorbox, pigment ink. I applied canary, sunflower, scarlet and chianti pigment ink, blending the colors beautifully together as pigment ink has that longer open time so we can achieve “flawless” blending. Canary, sunflower and scarlet can be found in the summer daze, pigment, petal point. Of course this ink is applied over the detail so to “pop” my detail I re-stamped with black pigment ink, over top of the “coloring”. When I add color to my images in this manner, not only is it the fastest method of “coloring” of all time, making it possible to have all 3 images needed for 3D purposes done in under 15 minutes (love, love, love this) but the detail is picture perfect and the entire image is lightfast. You will want to iron the finished images with a hot dry iron after they are removed from the baseboard to cure your ink in a flash.

Assemble your projects as shown and on the final layer of your 3/D poinsettia use your sundance and siren “Smooch” to fill in the berries. Notice the dimension the “Smooch” gives our berries along with the super shimmer. When you combine amazing stamps in any format with amazing mediums and employ great stamping tools, well, the result is fast and furious, stress free, fun, fun, fun.

Thought I would add a couple of closing shots and for this I added a beautiful text message from “Frog’s Whiskers Ink” to the card front and of course ribbon. When you add ribbon or fibers or “yeah”!!! both … it is like wrapping your “hand made treasure” like a gift. I do truly believe our “heart made” cards, tags, scrapbook pages and decorations are really a gift so “wrap away”. Then I shot the tag so you can see how much dimension there is in both projects. ENJOY!!