Using a new kit

Recently, I fell in love with the Kathryn Coyle Little Red Boots paper craft kit on Create and Craft and after a lot of umming and aahing, I bought it.

When it arrived I have to admit I was a little disappointed by the papers, they were gorgeous, but threre weren’t many and I am finding it much harder than usual to use the toppers, inspiration just won’t come.

There were three embossing folders in the kit which I love and have used. I made the first card here with the snowflake folder, and the snowglobe decoupage, and I added a piece of snowfall acetate over the snowglobe for detail. 

I also got 23 embossing dies and matching stamps. These are divided into three sets of stampos, three of dies. I have found that I have to cut, then stamp with these which has been confusing, but it looks great.

Back in January, I set myself some crafty goals. One was to improve my stamping and begin to use stamped images as the main card front and not just a topper. I have been practising making masks and have made a couple of toppers I was pleased with which weren’t just a simple stamped image, but that’s as much as I’d done.

The Kathryn Coyle stamps included a fir tree which struck me as an ideal filler for a card front as well as having lots of options to bbe decorated and prettified as a main image. There is also a fox (so cute), a deer, a large standing Santa and a snowman, all of which seemed like a perfect central focus to my card. The fox is a little big for it, one for when I’m feeling braver. 

As you can see, I chose the snowman.

I should have taken photos as I went along to help you follow my tutorial, but I only thought to share it when it was done. Sorry.

How to:

1.  Cut a piece of white card to slightly smaller than A6. 
2. Stamp the snowman centrally on the card, and with a small amount of card left below. 
3. Stamp the snowman again onto a scrap piece of card, a Post it, or proper masking paper (the latter two are easier, they hold in place when you stamp). Cut him out.
4. Stamp a tree. I started with one to the right of the snowman, in a nice big area of empty card.
5. Stamp the tree twice  again onto a scrap piece of card, a Post it, or proper masking paper and cut them out.
6. Use the masks you have made to cover the snowman and the first tree you stamped. Stamp a tree between the first two images, trying to get a different height to the first. 
7. Carry on masking off the areas you have already stamped and build up as many stamped trees as you want. I wanted a fairly dense forest, so there are 11 trees in my image.
8. Colour your stamped image as you wish. I used colouring pencils. I added a little grey to the snow to suggest shadow, although this doesn’t show well on the photo. The presents were the brightest bit of my design, but I tried to keep them muted because of the overall look. 
9. My sky is a dark blue colouring pencil lightly scribbled several times, then blended with water.
10. Layer your card front onto a piece of Kraft card, again slightly smaller than A6 and attach your card front to an A6 card blank.
11. Finally, use silver glitter glue to add a few sparkling stars/snowflakes to the sky, and to suggest snow on a few branches of your trees.

 This is a first for me, and I know I have a long way to go, but I am pleased with my creation. His Lordship said ‘mm’ to it with an eye roll, which I’m taking as a compliment!