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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GUEST ARTIST FEATURE: Carissa Wiley

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by today. Carissa Wiley here, and I am so excited to be a guest designer here on the WPlus9 blog today. I’m going to be sharing a few projects with you that combine several of my favorite WPlus9 products. It’s all about layering and combining to create beautiful cards for the holidays (or year round).

Watch above or watch in HD at YouTube

The focal area of my holiday cards combine the Woodland Wreaths stamp set, BeMerry stamp set and the Label Layers 2 die. I’ve used a lot of these same elements in my floral card as well....just to show you that once you have a layout that works, you can change up the elements to create a card with a completely different theme.In fact, a lot of my cards have the same basic layout. Changing the stamps, colors and elements gives them a completely different feel.

I chose to use the Natural Wafer Board to die cut my Label Layers 2 die. This gives the die cut more weight and presence on the front of the card. It serves as a nicegrounding place for my grouping of elements. I added just a touch of gold around the edges with some Rich Pale Gold embossing powder.

These cards have lots of dimension. You wouldn’t have to add this much dimension when creating this card...but I always think it’s fun to have elements that just pop off the page.

In order to adhere the vellum sentiment from the Be Merry Stamp set, I used some Kool Tak Clear Foam adhesive. This isn’t completely invisible, but since there is quite a bit of embossing, I was able to hide it pretty well.

I wanted to take this same basic principle and make it in to a year round card. I substituted my wreath for a grouping of stamped images from the Freehand Florals stamp set. I added a touch of gold to the flowers by stamping one of the layers in VersaMark ink and adding more of that Rich Pale Gold embossing powder. I also used the hello sentiment from the Bountiful Blooms die set. I layered it right on top of the banner from the Be Merry stamp and die set. Then I topped off the sentiment with a layer of Glossy Accents to give it shine and dimension.

Thanks for stopping by today. I want to thank Dawn for inviting me to share with you today. I hope you’ve enjoyed these projects and I hope you have a fabulous day!

Featured Supplies

For your convenience, here is a list of the Wplus9 supplies (or equivalents) used on today's project(s), along with links to purchase.

Wplus9 Bountiful Blooms Die Freehand Florals Freehand Florals Die Wplus9 Woodland Wreaths Woodland Wreaths Die Be Merry 4x6" stamp set Be Merry Die Wplus9 Natural Wafer Board Wplus9 Pure Color Gala Red Dye Ink Wplus9 Last Leaf PURE COLOR Dye Ink Wplus9 Sweet Nectar PURE COLOR Dye Ink Wplus9 Flamingo PURE COLOR Dye Ink Wplus9 Pure Color Warm Wool Dye Ink

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