How To Step Up Your Christmas Cards With Boughs Of Holly – Technique Tuesday

Nov 8, 2022 | Blog Hop, Christmas, Techniques

Welcome to the Crafty Collaborations blog hop. I am part of an amazing group of demonstrators from all around the world. We love showcasing the wonderful products which can found in our suite of catalogues. This month our theme is Step it up! I am very excited to share how you can really step up your Christmas cards with Boughs of Holly.

Boughs of Holly Suite

I have completely fallen in love with the Boughs of Holly suite after we used it for our recent Stamp Camp & judging by the number of people that attended, I’m not the only one!

What Does Step It Up Mean?

In papercraft parlance, ‘Stepping it up’ is when you create a simple card and then add to it with added techniques, die cuts, and other added extra’s – Really go to town, without changing the original design concept. Its really rather fun!

Step Up Your Christmas Cards With Boughs Of Holly – Simple Stamping

Whilst I have made lots of similar cards using more traditional reds and greens I thought it would be fun try some different colours.

So enter stage left Starry Sky and Gray Granite! Two beautiful colours, which you might not instantly associate with Christmas, but how well do they work with this card?

The leaves and berries are both stamped on Basic White card, using firstly the background stamp and then the more detailed second stamping.

This is known as two step stamping and can be achieved by using a darker colour over a lighter one! In this case stamp off the ink on some scrap paper to lighten the background. This is also known as second generation and is great way to create tone on tone.

Add a sentiment stamped in Starry Sky on a strip of Basic White card and shaped with the Pick a Banner Punch.

Before adhering to the card add some Gray Granite ribbon tied in a bow.

Finish with some Basic Rhinestone Jewels

Step Up Your Christmas Cards With Boughs Of Holly – Watercolour Card

Now the above card is gorgeous, but by stamping on some damp water colour card instead of Basic white you get a whole new look!

Also did you know that of you splatter water onto watercolour card, you can emboss it! Yes! No Versamark required!

Don’t those silver splatters look divine?

The punched sentiment was replaced by a Heat embossed sentiment on a piece of Starry Sky card and then die cut out with the small label from the Coordinating Holly Dies from the suite.

Another lovely ‘trick’ to step up a card is to due cut another label in a contrasting colour, cut in half and ahere behind the first one to add a pop of colour, or in this case a silver highlight!

Measurements – Christmas Cards With Boughs Of Holly – Watercolour Card

Base: Gray Granite – 29.7 cm by 20.0 cm, scored at 14.8 cm on the long side and burnished
First Layer: Starry Sky – 13.8 cm cm by 9.5 cm
Second Layer: Fluid 100 Watercolor card
Sentiments: Starry Sky – Scrap