Quick and Easy Holiday Cards with Natasha Valkovskaya

Hello everyone! This is Natalia Valkovskaya and I’m happy to be back to share with you two ideas featuring the adorable Holiday Houses stamp set. I love this set! It is so much fun to play with, and the opportunities are truly endless! No matter how much (or little) time you have on hands, you can make beautiful projects! So let’s jump right in!

Let’s say you have an idle evening and you are in for some coloring (maybe you are taking part in Kathy Racoosin’s 30 Day Coloring Challenge), then my first card is for you.

I stamped a bunch of watercolor sheets with the Holiday Houses stamp set in watercolor friendly ink. Using the MISTI made it really quick and easy. I then went to town coloring them! Any coloring medium of your choice would work, I went for watercolor this time. Then I die-cut all of the colored images with the companion dies.

For the background, I masked a piece of Ranger watercolor paper with some post-it tape and colored the inner rectangle with Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass, Salty Ocean and Blueprint Sketch, using a Blender Tool. Then I spritzed the blended area with some water and removed the droplets with a paper towel to create this lovely snowy effect. I also jazzed up the panel with a stitched border using the Gift Card Layers Die.

I made sure to stamp the sentiment before I started adhering the houses. Again, the MISTI came in handy to ensure dark and crisp stamping. I had so much fun playing with these cute little houses arranging them in different ways! Then I adhered the first row of houses and trees, and foam mounted some elements of the front row for extra dimension. I also adhered some trees a bit off the frame on the sides – I think this made the scene look more lively. Finally, I added some snowflakes with a white gel pen.

I also decorated the inside stamping the images in white ink.

What if you are pressed for time and you need to mass produce some holiday cards (we’ve all been there, right?), then hopefully you’ll get inspired by my second card.

For this one, I again stamped several watercolor sheets in Versamark ink and heat embossed them in white. Then I did the messiest and sloppiest watercolor ever – it literally took me a minute to color three panels! Talk about efficient! Then I die-cut them with coordinating dies.

To ground my trees and houses I stamped the base panel with Background Builders: Knit. Perfect for winter projects! I used Fairy Dust ink for a subtle look. I stamped the sentiment and snowflakes in the same ink.

And voila! Three holiday cards in no time at all!

That’s all from me for today. Thank you for staying with me till the end. Be safe, and happy crafting!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the supplies (or equivalents) used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase. Please note: this list does contain some affiliate links.

Holiday Houses 4x4" stamp set Holiday Houses Companion Die Background Builders: Knit Wplus9 Gift Card Layers Die Wplus9 White Premium Cardstock Wplus9 PURE COLOR White Pigment Ink *Tim Holtz DISTRESS WATERCOLOR CARDSTOCK Ranger Ink TDA39549 3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Permanent *3M Scotch ROLL WHITE MASKING TAPE Post-It Adhesive 2650-W RESERVE MINI MISTI PRECISION STAMPER Stamping Tool Kit mistimini Uni-Ball Pen Signo Gel WHITE UM-153 Sizzix BIG SHOT MACHINE Gray And White 660425 Mijello MISSION GOLD WATER COLOR PALETTE SET 36 Colors MWCP1536 Neat and Tangled WINTER WISHES Clear Stamp Set Simon Says Clear Stamps BE JOYFUL sss101481 Ranger MINI ROUND INK BLENDING TOOLS IBT40965 Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad SALTY OCEAN Ranger TDP40132 Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad TUMBLED GLASS Ranger TDP40248 RESERVE Tim Holtz Distress Mini Ink Pad BLUEPRINT SKETCH Ranger TDP47346 Simon Says Stamp Premium Ink Pad INTENSE BLACK Ink065 Precision Heat Embossing Tool Gun Hero Arts PW200 Wagner Tsukineko Versamark EMBOSS INK PAD Watermark VM-001 Hero Arts Pigment Ink Pad UNICORN White AF249 WOW Embossing Powder OPAQUE BRIGHT WHITE REGULAR WL01R

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