I cannot believe how the time is flying. I do this every year thinking that I have lots of time before I start making Christmas cards for my Mom and for me to send. Then all of a sudden, I check the calendar and "eek", I have to go into overdrive. Good thing I love making Christmas cards :)
I love making iris fold cards. They are like drawing Zentangles, so repetitive and calming. Also, instant gratification because they are easy but very dramatic when completed. For this card, I used this stamp from Stamp N plus Scrap N. It was stamped on dotty design paper with the tiny holly leaves coloured in with Prismacolor pencil. Bling and Sakura pen were added after the iris folding was completed.
Once again, I inked the folded edge of the red paper to show off those folds better. The card did get a little lumpy bumpy but my good friend, Paulette the iris fold Queen, gave me some great tips for next time to reduce the bulk. She doesn't fold the paper in half but rather creates a narrow fold which reduces the bulk a lot. She also uses thinner paper like wrapping or floral papers for a thinner end result. The other suggestion was to lay some double stick tape down on the back of the card to catch the first few layers. That means less tape so you are eliminating several thicknesses. All great suggestions. I'm going to make another card using the same stamp and show you what a difference these tips make. Another solution would have been to mount the thin dotty paper to stronger cardstock before stamping and cutting out. That way, I could have added foam tape to the back to compensate for the bulky layers. Thanks, Paulette!
I kept the rest of the card simple by adding a scallop of music DP and ribbon at the bottom and kraft cardstock and ribbon at the top. A button was added to the top right and a computer-generated sentiment printed on kraft to the top left corner. Simple matting and a scrap of gold metallic paper added to the center of the ornament finished off this ....my very first Christmas card of the year. Go me! Check out the Stamp N Plus blog to see some other ways to use this stamp...so gorgeous!
Thanks for visiting today. How far along are you with your Christmas cards?
Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie
Love your card and the technique of adding color to the folds to give it extra pop. Thanks for mentioning all my tips here. I'm going to send the DT over to view all our suggestions.
ReplyDeleteThis is B E A U T I F U L, Bonnie! I love that folding! Wow! Thanks for the inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping by to visit me and leaving a sweet comment! Happy to be a new follower here!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
HL