Christmas "postage stamp" card

 Are you inspired by beautiful postage stamps? I love getting the pretty stamps all year long but winter stamps seem to be my favorite. There's just something about glistening snow. Beautiful winter and holiday stamps have inspired this technique of creating a layer that looks like a postage stamp. It's simple really. All I did was alter my postage die cut with a pencil, ruler and a marker. The Perennial Postage dies have several sizes. My favorite sizes are the largest and second largest. 

After drawing in my guide lines, I stamp my images or scene inside the lines. For this postage stamp card, I used Spirited Snowman and Coming Home stamp sets. They are retired but still part of my stash and used often for winter scenes. My images are stamped in Basic Gray classic ink. Then colored with Stampin' Blends markers. The snow drifts and pond edges are drawn in with a dark Gray Granite stampin' blend marker. After doing several snowman cards, I really liked the look of Gray Granite for the snow. I went over top of the dark Gray Granite with the light Gray Granite stampin' blend marker. To smooth the edges of my scene lines, I went over them with the color lifter. This helps smooth the edges as well as lighten the color by pushing some of it through your paper. The frozen pond is colored with a light Balmy Blue stampin' blend marker and the color lifter over the edges to smooth out the lines. I used Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, light Gray Granite, light Balmy Blue and the Natural Tones 900 stampin blends markers to color in my snowman and trees. I go over how I colored my snowman and used the color lifter to lighten the gray color in my YouTube tutorial video. After I was done coloring my scene, I used a white paint marker pen to add in various sized white dots. I love the feel it gives the snowy scene and it makes the snowman appear to sparkle. I learned this technique for Alyce over at Kit and Clowder. Check out her coloring videos. 

After I'm all done stamping and coloring my layer. I use my ruler again and trace over my pencil lines with a Stampin' Write marker. I use Basic Black or Basic Gray, however, you could use any color you want. If you don't have fine tip markers, you could use a dark colored pencil. I have used a sharpie marker too but be careful if you do your lines before stamping and coloring. The sharpie may react with Stampin' Blends markers. 

All my snowman/snowgal cards turned out a little different. I've really been enjoying making a variety of these cards. 

You can use whatever stamps you have on hand. Another option for the border (if you are worried about drawing in those dark lines) is stamping in a line. I found a few "lines" in some of my sets like Light the Sky. Photopolymer stamps can be manipulated a little bit and I was able to straighten out a slightly curved line stamp to use it for my stamped border. You can also change up the color and add even more fun to your layer. I really like keeping it simple and stamping the greeting in the scene somewhere or leaving a greeting off all together. The layer is packed with texture. 

    

        

I decided to try doing some decorative lines and dots too. I love how this turned out. Get creative with your border.  

Check out my tutorial video for how I did my guidelines and finished my border. 

Measurements:

1. 1. Card base 5 1/4" x 8 1/2" scored at 4 1/4" (or folded in half)
2. 2. Layer is Basic White die cut with either #1 or #2 Perennial Postage die *I number my dies largest is 1. 
3. 3. Inside layer is Basic White 5" x 3 3/4"

Details:

• Stamps used: Spirited Snowman, Coming Home and November 2015 paper pumpkin (greeting). 
• Stampin' Blends Markers for the card in the video: Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Gray Granite, light Balmy Blue, Natural Tones 900 and color lifter
• Classic inks: Basic Gray and Smoky Slate

Want to see some new holiday favorites that you can use with this type of card? Check out my online store.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my postage stamp cards. Please leave a comment if you've tried this or need more info. 

Enjoy your day!

~ Beth