Whimsy Stamps ~ Snowy Village Scenes

Hey crafty friends, I'm popping in today with a series of cards I've made after a class with Kristina Werner for Online Card Classes. She taught a really fun background technique which I did for several of these cards and then as a playful experiment I used my Distress Crayons to create two of the backgrounds. I didn't have all the ink pad colours that Kristina used, but to try and work through some other colour options, I scribbled my crayons onto the background, and blended them out just with a bit of water on my finger. Finger painting fun! The two I did this way is the Noel one shown below with the blue and yellow sky and then the card below it that says Meri Kirihimete, which is a Maori Christmas Greeting from my homeland, New Zealand. I've done two cards with this greeting, the one done with crayons has the white elements.

Following Kristina's tutorial, I cut the hillside freehand. She provided a digital stencil you could print out for this, but my printer has been running out of ink, so I skipped that and just winged it freehand. I tried to keep them all very similar, so there was a cohesive look to the set. I also used the same gorgeous dies set from Whimsy Stamps to create the village scenes. I've had this set for years, it's gorgeous and when the tutors from the class were encouraging us to shop our stash, I embraced that and pulled out lots of my die sets to see what would work. This die set was an easy winner and I absolutely adore each and every one of these die scenes. 

I did some where I coloured the elements on the card and some where I left them white. I love both versions and I'm glad I tried it both ways. The two cards above I've used the Maori Christmas greeting Meri Kirihimete. The card on the left was done with the Distress Crayons and I think it came out so pretty, I'm so pleased I tried this idea. I've been getting into using my Distress Crayons for backgrounds during my Halloween creating, so it was nice to try them for some Christmas backgrounds. The card on the right, the background was done with Kristina's technique using ink pads. I won't reveal too much about that, because it's part of the class teaching, but I encourage you to check them out if you're interested, the classes are very reasonable and I really enjoy doing them. You don't have to attend them the week they're live, they're available anytime, so you've not missed out! I'll put a link at the end of the post if you're interested.

Both of these cards were done with the background technique Kristina taught. Each one comes out so differently, it's really fun! I did a mix of the coloured versus white village scenes for these two as well. But I used the same lovely French Christmas greeting, which is part of the Merry Christmas Around the World Clear Stamp Set. I splattered the inked backgrounds before adding them to the card bases with some Spellbinders Yasutomo Pale Gold Japanese Watercolor. I used that on the first five cards I created. I made a sixth one later, so did that background a little differently.

I used a stitched rectangle die for most of the cards, this one with the Noel sentiment, I used a plain rectangle die. The dies were from different Whimsy Stamps frame dies I have in my stash. I left a nice white border around most of these. The hillsides were freehand cut from a lovely shimmer paper from a Tonic Studios Paper Pack. So up close, they have a lovely texture and shimmer. I love all the little extras this Whimsy scene die set has, it's part of a slimline die set Whimsy released back when they first starting releasing slimline dies. Did you know Whimsy Stamps was the first craft company to bring them to the market? Ground breaking stuff! 

This card was the bonus card, the one I created after I'd finished the initial set. It came about because I had this idea to try the scene cut from kraft cardstock. I love how this turned out! I used some Pinkfresh Studio blue inks to create this background and because I forgot to splatter it before adding it to the card base, I just used my white gelly roll pen to add white stars to the sky. That fabulous sentiment is a newer one from Whimsy Stamps, from their Terrific Christmas Tickets Clear Stamp Set. I absolutely love the beautiful font design and graphics and typography they've used for these new ticket sets. They're fabulous, so I couldn't resist using one of these sentiments on this bonus card. I also left a narrower border than the earlier cards, but if I were to do it again, I would do the bigger border for this one too. I just wanted to try out the two looks, but I think the wider border really sets the scenes beautifully. I do love how the village scene looks in the kraft cardstock. I added touches of yellow here and there, the moon, some of the windows, the street lamp. I also love what the little fence added to this scene too. Let me know which scene is your favourite?! 

We've had the most wonderful release at Whimsy Stamps in November and we're gearing up for our December release now. So watch this space, I'll share it soon! Hope you're all having a fabulous week. Thanks for stopping in to visit my little corner of the blogosphere. Leave me a comment if you've time, I'd love to come visit you too. Hugs, Wends xoxo

(I share thumbnails to the elements I design with, in order to make your search for them easier, in case you like something I've used. I do use affiliate links where possible, and so appreciate if you use these when shopping. They cost you no extra whatsoever. I am proud to design for the companies I do and always feel happy to share where my inspiration and where my crafty stash comes from. I am occasionally gifted products to use, but I only design for companies whose products I absolutely love and buy for myself. My opinions are always my own.)

Challenge Entries:

Simon Says Monday Challenge: Use Dies for Die-cember

Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Use Dies in Die-cember