I have a monthly video feature, Doodling With Debby, on the Simon Says Stamp blog, and I’m sharing here too in case you missed it and for this month I’m taking inspiration from the front cover of a clothes catalogue which dropped through my door to create this die cut winter wreath card. I’ve linked all supplies at the end of this post. Compensated affiliate links used.
VIDEO
Watch below or in HD on YouTube.
Inspiration is all around us but don’t you just love when it literally falls at your feet or at least onto your doormat! As soon as I saw the catalogue, the front cover drew me in with the muted dusky shades, simple white wording and snowy bokeh and I was itching to translate it into a card.
I debated how to get the door with vignette effect of the darker edges fading into a spotlight around the wreath. In the end, I decided that the simplest, most effective way was to use a couple of colours of Distress Oxide inks and blend them into a piece of Neenah Solar White card. I pulled out Stormy Sky for the main colour and Black Soot to create the vignette.
I did ponder on how to get the background to look like a door. I wondered about watercolouring or drawing lines with a black pen, but I wanted to keep the background simple so that the wreath and sentiment were the main focus. In the end, I decided on a subtle wood texture by using this Designer Woodgrain stamp from Hero Arts. This is one of the first background stamps I ever bought, and I still love it. I inked the stamp with Stormy Sky Distress Oxide and some Black Soot too around the edges as I wanted to get the same effect with the woodgrain as I had over the rest of the card. I then placed the card on top of the stamp and thoroughly rubbed with my fingertips to make sure I had an excellent impression.
I love adding splatter to my cards, and one of my favourite ways to do so is to use a solution of Perfect Pearls. I add a scoop or two of Perfect Pearls to a mini mister, then top up with water and give it a good shake and then I use the tube from the bottle to splatter the sparkly mixture. In line with the inspiration piece, I really went to town with the splatter and then set the background aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card.
For the wreath, I used pieces of Neenah Solar White card that I coloured with Dye inks from Simon Says Stamp – Midnight Green, Seafoam, Laurel Green, Dusty Sage and Cloudy Sky. The night before I filmed the video I rubbed the inks over pieces of white card and left them to dry. There are two reasons why it is a good idea to leave the ink to dry before using the card. Firstly, the ink smooths and lightens as it dries and so you get the true colour to work with. Secondly, if you try to die cut from the card before it is fully dry, you’ll find that your die cuts get stuck in the die and become misshapen when you try and pull it out.
I dug through my die collection looking for any small delicate foliage dies. In total I used the following dies to create my wreath – Pine Needle Trio, Forget Me Not Flowers, Pine Needle Wreath, Holly Collage and Leafy Circle which I cut from the dye ink coloured card and during the making of the wreath I thought a few snowflakes would be lovely and for those I used the Sparkling Snowflakes Breeze die cut from white card.
Next, I added some Tim Holtz Distress Glitter in Rock Candy to the pine needles die cuts. This is my all time favourite glitter for this time of year as it adds lovely sparkle and sugar texture. I used Ranger Multi Medium Matte and squeezed a blob onto my glass craft mat before taking a leaf and rubbing the glue over the leaf with my finger and then quickly dunking into the glitter.
To mount the wreath to the card, I die cut a ring. I used two Nested Circle dies from Simon Says Stamp and ran them through my die cutting machine with a white card I then used the same two colours of Distress Ink to colour the ring so that it would blend into the background if any of it was visible once I’d constructed the wreath. I then foam mounted the ring onto the card front to give me a guide as to where to adhere the die cuts and to add more dimension.
To attach the foliage to the ring, I dipped the ends of each leaf in Ranger Multi Medium Matte and then pressed down onto the ring. I kept adding more and more of the leaves until my wreath was full to bursting with texture and dimension.
I splattered the wreath with more of the Perfect Pearls solution and then further accented it with Nuvo Crystal Drops in Simply White and Duck Egg Blue and finally Dewdrop Diamonds from Little Things From Lucy’s cards.
For the sentiment, in line with the inspiration, I die cut the Happy Christmas die from white card. This die comes with the delicate script wording as well as a shadow die, but I chose just to use the delicate script as I felt it went better with the design. I added lots of tiny little pieces of foam adhesive to the back of the words. You could cut several of each word and layer then on top of one another to get a more dimensional sentiment, but I find I lose the elegant look when I do that and prefer just a single layer with foam adhesive to give dimension. I kept the dot of the i in place with Ranger Multi Medium Matte.
Finally, I added the finished panel to a Neenah Solar White card base in the 110lb weight to give a sturdy base to cope with all the dimension on this card.
SUPPLIES
You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or shop icon to get taken directly to the product. Where available I use compensated affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. You can read my affiliate and product disclosure here. I genuinely appreciate your support.
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PIN ME
Summary of the project which gives all the views of the card in one photo :D I’d love if you pinned and called by on Pinterest :D
WOW ! Inspiration that dropped on the door mat. Marvellous card, amazing piece of art.
Love the watercolour wreath using the dye inks and will case this card using leaves and dies in my die collection…it’s something I do forget to do …..mix and match! Beautiful end result and love the snow effect
Fabulous card Debbie. Love the colours and dimension you get. Must give this a try with some of my dies. Thank you for sharing.
This is so gorgeous! A keepsake for sure.
WoW! Absolutely gorgeous and the details are exquisite. A striking card that should be framed and showed off .
Absolutely BEAUTIFUL card. Very very impressive… its really a piece of Christmas Art. It deserves to be put in a frame and displayed during the Holidays year after year. Thank you so much for sharing.
Just so gorgeous!!