Christmas Wreath Card

Hello,

It is a rainy, windy day today.  This card, with the wreath from the Winter Moments stamp set by Penny Black really sets the mood for a day like today.  I just loved the wreath and the bird in this stamp set.

I started out with a piece of square watercolor paper and the wreath stamp.  Using the MISTI stamp positioner, I centered the wreath in the center of the paper and then working quickly, I colored the foliage part of the stamp with Tombow markers from their Primary set, very lightly spritzed it with water and stamped the image onto the paper.  I did this one more time to get good coverage with the greens.  I stamped it a third time but this time without any water just to give more definition to the image.

Next, I colored the red berries with the red Tombow markers in this set, spritzed lightly with water and stamped, then repeated this step until I achieved the color and coverage I was looking for.

After the wreath was dry, I mixed up green watercolor paint with a touch of brown to get the olivey color and carefully painted around and inside the wreath.  Then, with a clean paint brush applied  clean water to the background (away from the wreath), then added a diluted olive green to the background.  The final step was to load my brush with the green and run it around the edge of the panel, creating a framing effect.

Something seemed to be missing.  It was at this point I added the bird.  I love birds and this one was perfect.  I first stamped it in Antique Linen distress ink and then painted it with watercolors.

The assembly of the card was quick and easy.  Starting with a watercolor paper card base, I hand lettered “Merry Christmas with the Finetec Artist Mica paint.  Of course, if hand letting isn’t your thing, then a sentiment stamp of your choosing will work perfectly.  I would really recommend the Delicata Gold ink for stamping your sentiment.  The Delicata inks are sooooo scrumptious!

The final bits of this card are to mount the wreath onto a red cardstock square and add foam on the back of the red to pop it up.  Then mount it onto the card base and add the bird with a square of foam tape.

Supply List:

Penny Black Winter Moments

Tombow Primary Marker Set

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolors

Canson Watercolor Paper

Peppermint Paper

Finetec Artist Mica Watercolor

MISTI Positioning Tool

Antique Linen

White Fun Foam

Foam Tape