Heart and Hearth Crafts

I’m making some vintage style Christmas cards with Winnie White Digital Stamps from Polkadoodles. I’ve coloured these sweet images with Promarker Brush pens and paired them with Joy to the World papers from Make and Create.

Keep on reading and I’ll show you how to make your own handmade cards. I’m including ProMarker blends and all the craft stash and crafting techniques I’ve used.

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Step 1 – Choose Your Digital Stamp

The Digi image is from Polkadoodles, part of their Winnie White Christmas range. 

There are thousands of different digital stamps availible online. Click here to take a look at my favourites.

I get most of my digital stamps from Polkadoodles. I fell in love with their designs many, many years ago. They are a joy to colour and I always really enjoy card making with them. Sign up for their newsletter for weekly deals and money off new releases.

If you’ve not used digital stamps before take a look at this step by step guide to using digital stamps in your card making.

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Step 2 – Print Your Digital Stamp

I print my digital stamps onto Ultimate Graphic 160gsm paper. It’s bright white so my colours really pop and it’s super smooth surface makes blending easier.

You don’t need a fancy or expensive printer to print digital stamps. I use a Canon Pixma, any inkjet printer will do.

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Step 3 – Choose Your Designer Papers

It’s usually a good idea to choose your designer papers before you colour your digital stamp this way you can use the colours of the paper to choose your markers.

I found this gorgeous vintage style Christmas paper pack at the Works. I love traditional Christmas colours and small prints work really well for card making.

I also like to choose some co-ordinating plain paper. I use this as a mat to frame my designer papers. For these vintage style Christmas cards I’ve chosen some kraft paper.

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Step 4 – Colour Your Digital Stamp

I’ve coloured these digital stamps with my Winsor & Newton BrushMarkers. They are much more affordable than other brands of alcohol markers but are still of excellent quality. I prefer the brush nib as it allows me more control over my pen strokes and makes it easier to blend.

I use Winsor & Newton Promarker Brush pens to colour most of my digital stamp card making projects and I highly recommend them.

I tend to choose three shades of each colour, a dark, mid tone and a lighter shade for highlights. I often include a grey or a pale brown shade to deepen a colour and create a shade that I don’t have.

You need to work quite quickly with alcohol markers. So It’s best to tackle one area at a time. I tend to leave each area to dry and work on a different part of the image to avoid the colours mixing.

I usually start with the darkest shade and colour where there would be a shadow or the part furthest from an imaginary light source. Then I go over this with the mid tone, flicking the pen to add more colour into the centre of the shape I’m colouring. Finally I go over the whole area with the lightest tone.

After my image has dried a bit I often find I’ve blended too well and I go over the darkest areas again to deepen the shadow.

You really don’t need a lot of markers. I think I have about 60 different colours. However I would advise you not to skrimp on the greys and muted shades, they are so useful for adjusting other colours. If you click on the image above you can see all of the colours I have in my collection. These are the shades I would recommend investing in to get a good range of colours without buying the full set.

Here’s the shade’s I’ve used:

Promarker Brush Colours – Skin

Promarker Brush Colours -Reds

Promarker Brush Colours – Greens

Promarker Brush Colours – Browns

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Step 5 – Choose Your Greeting

I wanted to keep the focus on the digital stamped image and so I’ve chosen a very small and simple sentiment. It’s from a very old pack by Papermania which has long since been discontinued. Polkadoodles are doing a similar pack of small Christmas sentiments so I’m linking that one here.

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Step 6 – Choose a Card Blank

To compliant the vintage Christmas vibes of this card I’ve chosen a kraft card blank.

I tend to use Craft UK Card blanks. They’re great quality for everyday card making. I usually get the big value 50 packs which include envelopes.

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Step 7 – Design Your Card

Gather your supplies together and lay them out on your card blank. Move them around, twist and turn your papers. Swap out papers for different designs. Play with your design and have fun!

I find that my designs are much more creative when I have scraps of papers. A scrap of the right paper is often a specific size or shape and the rest of the layout comes together around that one scrap.

Here are some of my designs to give you some inspiration:

Copy This Card Layout

A card sketch is like a blueprint or template that shows where the papers, images and embellishments are positioned on the card. Instead if designing your card from scratch you can use a sketch as a guide. Customise the design with your own stamps and patterned papers.

Here’s a sketch of my card if you’d like to copy it.

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Step 8 – Choose Your Embellishments

I like to save odd scraps of ribbon and twine from packaging and old clothes. It’s surprising what free craft materials you can find when you start to look for them.

But this gorgeous country Christmas ribbon from Italian Options was just too perfect not to buy. The traditional Christmas colours were the perfect match to these Winnie White Christmas digital stamps.

I’ve highlighted parts of my digital stamped image with Stickles glitter glue. I often use this on my Christmas cards and crafts, it’s so much easier than trying to colour snow.

And of course I just had to add a few gold gems – one of my cards wouldn’t feel complete without them!

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Step 9 – Assemble Your Card

I like to use 6mm double sided tape for most of my cards. It’s cheaper than the usual 12mm tape but it sticks just as well.

I use a pokey tool to remove the backing from the tape. It’s nice and easy and saves my finger nails from getting split.

For teeny tiny little embellishments I generally use silicone glue. I use my pokey tool to roll a little blob of silicone from the end of the tubes and then roll it onto my page.

Applying Ribbon and Lace

Ribbon can be tricky to stick onto cards. This is my favourite technique for neatly hiding the raw ends and stopping them from fraying.

I start by sticking the strip of paper to the matt using double sided tape. It’s quick and easy to use and it always leaves a neat finish. Removing the back of the tape can be tricky so I use a pokey tool to lift up a corner. I recently retired my old pokey tool and replaced it with the Design Knife, it’s a pokey tool, craft knife and embossing tool all in one.

Next I lay my strip of mounted paper flat on my craft mat and stick a length of double sided tape where I want my ribbon. I make sure that the ends of the tape extend over the ends of the paper and left them stick lightly to the mat.

Then I place my length of ribbon to the exposed tape and press it onto the paper.

Finally I gently lift the paper off the craft mat and turn it over. It’s easy to press the ribbon and the extra tape to the back of the paper so that the ends are neatly hidden from the front of the card.

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Step 10 – Decorate the Inside Too

I think it’s such a shame to receive a beautifully decorated card only to open it and be faced with a blank page. So I use more of my designer papers to decorate the insides of my cards. I mostly use scraps leftover from the main design and a 10cm square of plain paper to write a nice message onto.

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Follow me on your favourite social media channel for more card making ideas and inspiration.

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Etsy

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Shop this Card Making Project

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Take a Look at my Etsy Shop

This handmade greeting card is available to buy in my Etsy shop.

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More Christmas Card Making Projects

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Card Making Challenges I’m Entering

• Digi Choosday Challenge
• Pammie’s Inky Pinkies Challenge
• Polkadoodles Craft Challenge
• Creative Fingers Challenge
• Crafty Catz
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends
• Gem of a Challenge
• The Paper Funday Challenges
• A Perfect Time To Craft
• Classic Design Challenge

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Crafty Link Ups

[Really Crafty Link Party] [Craftastic Monday Link Party] [Create, Bake, Grow & Gather Party] [Farmhouse Friday] [Saturday Sparks Link Party] [Crafter’s Link Party] [Spread The Kindness Link Up] [Happiness Is Homemade] [Share Your Style] [Home Matters Linky Party] [Busy Monday] [Creatively Crafty Linky Party] [Love Your Creativity Link Party]

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Pin it Now, Craft it Later

I do hope you have enjoyed having a peak at my latest card making project. Please feel free to use my handmade cards to inspire your own creations, pin it to your Pinterest for later.

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