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I created this card for my monthly YouTube hop. The theme was Winter Holidays, so I created a California holiday card. I started out by stamping this super cute Trinity Stamps Santa a couple of times with alcohol-marker-friendly ink. Then I roughly blocked in the colors I’m going to use on one of the impressions. 

I want my Santa to sit at the bottom of an A2 card with the sentiment above him. It’s a pretty big sentiment, so it’s important to plan out my card. I’m actually starting with the background, because it needs to be dry when I heat emboss the sentiment in gold. I’m using the color blocked die cut to plan out the card. 

I’m going to ink blend my sky with Distress Oxides in Salty Ocean and Tumbled Glass. I’m starting with Salty Ocean at the top. 

Then I’m bringing in Tumbled Glass from the sides. Tumbled Glass is my most used Distress Oxide ink pad. It’s the only one that I’ve needed to re-ink. It’s such a great color for skies. 

I’m adding a bit more Salty Ocean to the top and then I leave the background to dry. 

Coloring

Changing gears, I’ve put down a laminated piece of paper, to protect my white craft mat from my Ohuhu alcohol markers. I have another impression of the Santa in his hammock under the palm trees. See the table above for the markers I’m using.

This is another video in my monthly cardmaking video hop series. The theme this time is Winter Holidays. I hope you’ll find some more inspiration for your holiday crafting from my friends! Get in touch with me, if you want to join us in 2025! 

The coloring is almost done. I’m going to use Dr Ph Martin’s Bleed-Proof White to clean up a couple of spots where I colored outside the lines. 

Then I add a few highlights with a gel pen. And when I got tired of fighting with the gel pen, I switched to using it as a dipping pen in the bleed-proof white acrylic paint.

Assembly

I dried the white paint with my heat gun and then I got ready to die cut the image with the coordinating die. 

If you think this image looks slightly different from the one I just colored, that’s because it is. This is the first image I colored. Unfortunately most of the footage was blurry. 

Note to self: Lock focus when recording myself coloring. The coloring you just watched was my second take. The difference isn’t big, but the second one has a bit more contrast than the first. 

I’ve cut down one side of my background and adhered a piece of Accent Opaque for stability and dimension behind it. Now I’m gluing it to the card base, making sure the background covers the entire card. Then I cut off the excess with my Tim Holtz trimmer. 

Sentiment

I’ve placed my card in my Misti, so I can plan out where to place the die cut. I’m going to use this sentiment from the stamp set. I want to use it together with a California stamp that I bought at a Stamp & Scrapbook Expo a couple of years ago. The company, doesn’t exist any more unfortunately. But I really like this stamp with the rainbow and the scripty California. 

Before I glue down my Santa, I’m adding a grounding shadow under him with alcohol markers. And then I glue down the Santa to the background. 

I return the card to the Misti and place the large sentiment. Before I heat emboss, I treat the upper part of the card with anti-static powder. I stamp the California sentiment and pour gold embossing powder over it. Then I melt the powder with my heat gun. 

I place the small sentiment underneath and heat emboss it in gold as well.

And this is the finished card! Santa is enjoying a good book in a hammock in the shade from some palm trees. I think it’s super cute!