Thank you - the third

Today I get up to date on the thank you cards, with the set I made for this Christmas.

I combined old and new a bit on these - resist embossing, with distress oxides.

I started by cutting my card to size to go on an A6 card blank. I then stamped and heat embossed my designs. I used the same thank you stamp on each - a wooden stamp I got in a charity shop. Around this I used different stamps and embossing powders.

The first three used a platinum powder - it's a pale gold colour that I really like. I used the larger holly and ivy stamp from Clarity, and their larger leafy swirl stamp.

I then moved to white, repeating the leafy swirl stamp,

then snowflakes,

then corner stamps (the stamp platform came in handy for mirroring the position),

then knitting patterns.

For colour, I then added the distress oxides to my mat, spritzed with water, and dabbed the embossed card in. Some looked good after one layer, some had one or two more. The resist worked amazingly well - the opacity of the distress oxides gives the impression they'd cover the embossing somehow, but they didn't at all, it was crisp and clean, and gave a great contrast.

For the snowflakes, I went for blues and purples, frosty colours.

The snowflake corners started with just blues, then I added the wilted violet in a second layer as it looked a bit plain.

This one had more purple added to the mix on the mat, and has come out really pretty with one layer.

I went for the turquoise/green colours for this card - I love turquoise and gold together. But it looked too uniform when it dried, so I added twisted citron for some zest.

This one is also turquoise; instead of the twisted citron, I flicked water at this one then lifted with a towel to give more texture in the colour.

I went for more traditional Christmas colours - red and green - here, to tie in with the holly design. It looks more fiery than Christmassy, but I love it!

Bethany wanted green for this card - it's her favourite colour. I added a touch of fired brick for a second layer, as it looked a bit plain and washed out with just greens.

And my favourite card of the lot, which was also Bethany's colour choices - wilted violet, picked raspberry and twisted citron. The lime has merged into the other colours so can only be seen in a very tiny section in the centre, but has created gorgeous orange and coral shades in the mix - one of those things you can't predict and probably couldn't replicate easily.

Each card was edged in one of the distress oxides, to match, before being mounted onto the card blank.

That's me up to date with thank you's! I shouldn't need more until Bethany's next birthday in November - maybe she'll be old enough to make her own then!