Spirit of Christmas Cardinals and Holly by Anne Thompson

I'm starting to build up my supply of holiday cards for December featuring great images and sentiments from the SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS Clear Stamps and Dies set CL5261-D. (The stamps are available by themselves, CL5261, if you don't want the dies.) I particularly like the the cardinal and the holly/berries branch and used them against plaid paper for this first card, stamping the images on white cardstock with VersaFine Clair Nocturne (black) ink before coloring them with my Prismacolor pencils and then die cutting them. I also added Ruby Crystal Fairy Sugar/glitter glue to the berries for some extra sparkle.

I started with a dark green cardstock notecard with the plaid paper attached to white cardstock and trimmed really closely before adhering that panel to the card front. I used dimensional foam tape to attach the cardinal at an angle and secured the holly branch and glittered berries to its body with Glue Dots. I even added the tiniest black gem I could find in the center of its eye.

Because the inside of the card was dark green, I added a white panel and the leftover strip of the plaid paper. I stamped "Wishing You A MERRY CHRISTMAS" on a scrap of white cardstock and mounted it to a piece of the same green cardstock as the notecard, leaving plenty of room for a brief note and signature.

The second card I made is similar...stamped and colored and die cut cardinal and holly branch against plaid paper with just a tiny bit of Goldfinch Fairy Dust/glitter glue added to the berries and a tiny black gem eye.

I used a complementary plaid on the inside and the same sentiment on a white panel.

And because I've been stamping a dozen or more pumpkins on printed papers this last week I tried that technique on this third card. I used an orange-y/red plaid for the cardinal and a dark green plaid for the holly, red pearls for the berries and another tiny gem eye on the bird. I love that bird!

This time I layered the front and back patterns of one of the papers from the GARLAND 6X6 paper pad PP1010 on a Holly red notecard and added "WARMEST WISHES". On the inside I used one of the dotted papers and a different piece from the Garland pad and added "MERRY CHRISTMAS" along the bottom edge.