A Wreath Collage Card

Hello folks, Martina here with another take on using the Nellie Snellen Wreath Stamp. Hasn't Autumn crept up fast? I know it has not 'technically' started yet, but it definitely feels like it here. It will soon be time for my annual mushroom hunting trip in a forest I love, (not to pick, just to spot) as well as time to start thinking about Christmas, I suppose!

This week I have a card to share that can either be considered as one, rather large, 8x8 card, or 4 little ones. Once again, I wanted to be able to create a fairly simple card, that I could replicate easily, but that was also 'handmade'.

Using my stamp press, I placed the first of my stamp layers into position on the top plate. You may be wondering why it is stamped up and to the left, the reason for this being that the first time I stamped it, I didn't realise that some parts are obviously bigger than others and so got caught on the edges of the press...doh! To get around this, and still make life easy for myself, I cut 4 pieces of card to equal sizes. I stamped the 'green layer' of the stamp onto each piece. I then switched the stamp layer and changed colour to repeat the process. As the card pieces were all cut to the same size and placed tight against the stamp press corner, the position would be perfect for each one (obviously if you wanted to make more than 4 cards, you would do the same for how ever many you wanted!)

Once I had stamped all my layers with Versacolor Ink on each topper, they looked like this...

Yes, but it is all 'off to one side' I hear you say - no problem. As each topper was the same size and stamped in the same place, I measured how big I wanted it to be and repeated the measurements and cuts for each one. If you were making 4 different little cards and not one large one, this would not matter so much, as the wreaths would not be next to each other in one place (up to you, really!)

The next step was to choose the decoration I wanted to add to the insides. I used some Christmas Card-io stamps and a sentiment from the Christmas Frosting Hobby Art Set, playing around to create little 'scenes'. I used torn paper to create 'hills' and cut out circles to mask off 'suns' ( if you would like to see more of how this is achieved, check out last week's blog post HERE) Versacolor, Distress and Archival Inks were used to stamp with (depending on the colours I had!). The final touches were to add some stickles and glittery bits!

Voila! I think I prefer these as 4 individual cards, as the 8x8 one is a big piece to take in, but it's all about the 'journey' as they say, and not the destination!

The next Grove Green workshop is on Sunday, October 15 and it's all about Imagination Crafts' fabulous Rusty Patina. Click for info and booking details.

See you next week,

lots of love,

Martina

xxx