robin

 There has to be a robin for Christmas, and this little chap is on the Christmas circles stamp set from Chocolate Baroque..
I stamped him onto white card using black versafine and clear embossing powder, and then added the brusho powders in lemon and green, trying to keep the background behind the stamp light. Did end up with a steak of green where I didn't really want it, but that is part of the fun with brushos, you never know what you are going to get!
Coloured everything with pencils, ordinary ones this time that I had forgotten I had - probably because I wasn't too happy with the quality after the initial set (hasten to add they did not come from Chocolate Baroque, and they weren't cheapo ones). I used the holly leaves part of the stamp to stamp the random background onto the base card bewfore adding black and gold mats to the robin.
My second version used a scrap of previously coloured card which was much darker in tone. Again stamped in black and clear embossed and coloured with the pencils and a blender pen. Cut out using a fancy die and mounted straight onto a white base card. sentiment is from the same set.

Christmas garden

 It didn't feel a bit like Christmas making these in blazing sunshine...but this BIG stamp from Chocolate Baroque made it so easy!
I did three versions in the end, it was so easy to keep playing.
First one was simply stamped in black versafine ink and clear embossed. I coloured the robin, lanterns, tree and poinsettias using koh-i-noor watercolour paints. The sentiment from Christmas circles was stamped at the top before addin a mat of black card. The white base card was randomly stamped in grey ink using the baubles bit  and holding the stamp in my hand.





As a brusho addict, i just had to try with brushos and this was the result. Background was a mix of yellow and turquoise powders well spritzed with water. Once it was dry, the image stamped in black versafine and clear embossed. I used bleach and a paintbrush to lighten the lanterns, candles stars and baubles. The robin, holly, poisettias and the candles were painted with watercolours again - the background was fairly light behind the poinsettias and the robin, and the watercolours easily covered it up. The card was edged with black marker pen, and added to narrow gold and black mats before adding to a white base card.

 This one was simply stamped on black card with versamark and embossed in white before painting the candles and poisettias with watercolour paints. Gold and red mats before adding to a white base card.


Number four took  a lot longer, but most of that involved fussy cutting the poinsettias out.
I used the small mistletoe sprig and used my stamping platform to create a wreath, stamping in two different green inks. The poinsettias were stamped in black versafine onto white card and clear embossed before colouring with marker pens - I think I stamped them six times altogether, but it could have been more. The sentiment comes from the Christmas circles set

a little bit different, and while there are probably not too many people with Christmas birthdays, they do deserve a birthday card!