Christmas Card Craft Ideas – 1

Christmas Card Craft Ideas – 1

This is the first of my Christmas card craft ideas.  Using simple rubber stamp techniques I will provide step by step instructions to produce this beautiful, yet easy to make Christmas card.

Woodware Christmas Card Craft Ideas |Project 1 @ Craft-House

Basic resources for this card:

  • A4 white card stock or a DL sized card with a smaller approx. 21cm x 8cm piece of white card.
  • Coloured Card stock. I’m using red to match the colour of my pen. The card needs to be about the same size or slightly larger than your small piece of white card.
  • Woodware ‘All about Christmas’ FRS302 Clear Stamp and Acrylic Block to fit the stamp (both currently available for purchase here).
  • Black Ink Pad – I’ve used a Jet Black StazOn Pad but that’s just my preference.
  • Coloured Pens – Red and Black.
  • Also I recommend a good , clean work surface. I use the Woodware ‘Hot Stuff Mat’ to protect my table, especially as I’m using StazOn fast drying solvent (permanent) ink.
  • A pair of scissors.
  • A4 trimmer – especially useful if you haven’t already got a DL sized card.
  • Double sided mounting tape.
  • Red ribbon bow for decoration.

Basic Resources for Christmas Card Craft Ideas|project 1

Step 1 – Cut your white card to size

To make a DL size card cut from a piece of A4 a card measuring 21cm x 21cm and fold in half. The remainder of the card is then about the right size for your small piece.

Cut White Card | Cristmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

Step 2 – Ink-up

Take the Woodware ‘All about Christmas’ stamp and position it on your clear acrylic block.  Then after protecting your working area, ink-up your stamp by firmly pressing your ink pad all over the stamp. Ink up Stamp | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

As noted, my preference (when not embossing an image) is to use StazOn, but my ink pad was slightly dry so I applied re-inker to the pad.

Re-inker | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | 1 project

Step 3 – Stamp image

Carefully place you inked stamp over the white card and firmly press down.  Ensure you evenly apply enough pressure. This is quite a large stamp and it may take some practice to get the perfect image.

Stamp Image | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

Step 4 – Clean your stamp

As I’ve used StazOn I recommend the StazOn cleaner, if however you’ve used a pigment or dye-based ink pad then washing up liquid usually works for me.  More information about the different types of ink pad available here.

StazOn Cleaner | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | Project 1

Step 5 – Colour image

My image wasn’t as good as I wanted, so if a few of the areas need more definition, very carefully apply black pen to those areas. Then colour the letters and border with your choice of colour – I used red here, but in the past I have created both a green version and a darker, almost burgundy red one.

Colour with pen | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

Step 6 – Mount image

Trim the stamped image to leave a small (approx. 2mm) border around the outer side.

Finished coloured image | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

Then trim a co-ordinating coloured piece of card (red in my case) to 20.5 cm x 7.5cm. Apply mounting tape to both pieces of card.

Mount tape | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

 

Stick the coloured card to your pre-cut and folded DL sized card as shown in the photo, then the stamped image card on the top.

Stamped image mounted on card | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

 

Step 7 – Finishing touches

Add a ribbon bow as an embellishment – iron with straighteners if necessary.

Red Ribbon |Christmas Card Craft Ideas | Project 1

I used a glue dot in this instance for a quick fix – but when batch making cards I would normally recommend a hot glue gun.

Glue dot on ribbon | Christmas Card Craft Ideas | project 1

Sit back and admire your finished work:

Woodware Craft @ Craft-House | Christmas Card Craft Ideas

 

Craft Stamps: Wooden, Clear or Cling?

On the whole the industry seems to be moving away from wooden backed craft stamps in favour of clear polymer or cling stamps, in view of this I thought it may be useful to look at the pros and cons of all these types.

Clear Craft Stamps: Pros

Woodware Chubby Penguin Clear Magic Craft Stamp @ Craft-House
Woodware ‘Chubby Penguin’ Clear Craft-Stamp

•Easy to store.

•Shipping tends to be cheaper.

•There are some quality image stamps producing highly effective results available on the market.

•Accurate positioning as you can visualise where your stamped image will be reproduced.

•You can place a number of clear stamps on the one block to produce your finished result.

•Tend to be cheaper than traditional rubber stamps.

Clear Craft Stamps : Cons

•Some have a tendency to yellow over time, though this does not affect the quality of the stamped image.

•You need a clear acrylic block large enough to hold your stamp.

•Image quality tends to be inferior to traditional rubber.

•The stamps are softer, prone to tearing and stretching – caution is needed when removing them from their backing sheet.

•Beware of those of a lesser quality.

Wooden Backed Craft Stamps: Pros

Inkadinkado 'Ornate Bird Frame' Craft Stamp @ Craft-House
Inkadinkado ‘Ornate Bird Frame’ Wooden Craft Stamp

•The rubber is permanently fixed to the wood, so its ready for immediate use.

•Large selection with varying degrees of intricacy.

•With a growing range of clear stamps some of the wooden designs are being discontinued. For those companies replacing their designs with clear alternatives the wooden designs maybe offered up for sale at a discounted rate.

•The quality of the printed image tends to be much clearer than those produced from polymer.

Wooden Backed Craft Stamps: Cons

•Bulky – so shipping tends to be more expensive.

Cling Craft Stamps: Pros

Hero Arts 'Let it Snow' Christmas Cling Craft Stamp @ Craft-House
Hero Arts ‘Let it Snow’ Cling Craft-Stamp

•Offers the balance between the convenience of cling being easy to store, with the quality of a rubber image.

Cling Craft Stamps: Cons

•Like the cling you will need an acrylic block.