Believe In The Magic! Creating With A Traditional Colour Palette

Hello there! It’s Lisa Tilson here with you today on the Spellbinders blog. I’m thrilled to be here to share some ideas with the fabulous Copperplate Holiday Sentiments release. In this collection, you have seven different Christmas/New Year sentiments to choose from, along with a gift tag press plate.

I have chosen to go with a traditional red, white gold, and green color palette for my cards today. I love to use different and maybe surprising contemporary colours at Christmas but I also love the familiarity and warm fuzzy feeling from traditional colors!

Merry Christmas

All the Copperplate sentiments have the most beautiful script font, at least in my eyes! I adore them. For this first card, I used the Copperplate Merry Christmas Press Plate and some BetterPress Saffron Ink which I think works really well as a “gold”. You’ll also see this appear on my second card.

I started off by taping a panel of A2 Porcelain Cardstock onto the platen (clear top plate) of my BetterPress Letterpress System using small pieces of Best Ever Craft Tape. I positioned the Copperplate Merry Christmas onto the magnetic platform and inked it up with Saffron BetterPress Ink. I popped the platen back onto the platform and ran the sandwich through my Platinum 6 Die Cutting Machine. I love the feel of that texture after you complete the press!

I thought that the Tweet Cardinal Etched Dies would be a cute little accent sat at the bottom of the card and so I die cut them from Poppy Field, Crimson, Onyx, Snowdrift, and Saffron Color Essentials Cardstock. I also die-cut some foliage from Christmas Blooms Etched Dies using Fern and Peridot cardstock.

Next, I assembled the cardinal using Bearly Art Glue and popped some foam tape onto the back. I adhered my foliage with glue and then added the bird on top.

The card at this point felt a little bit “unfinished” so I decided to add some stripes at the bottom. Using a Guillotine Paper Trimmer, I cut 0.25” cardstock strips from the same reds, greens, and white as I used for the bird and foliage. I then took a small piece of printer paper and cut it to 4.25” wide and about 1.0” high and covered it with double-sided tape. The strips were then added randomly onto the paper and any excess trimmed off. This was then adhered onto an A2 white note card that I created from Snowdrift Color Essentials Cardstock (11” x 4.25”, scored at 5.5”).

To finish, I trimmed a small section off the bottom of my top panel and adhered it down onto the base card using wet adhesive. I added a few white glossy pearls around the cardinal for a bit of extra interest.

Believe

For my second card I used the Copperplate Believe Press Plate but this time I pressed it onto the lower section of my card panel. I used the same Saffron BetterPress Ink and Porcelain Cardstock as I did on the first card.

I love a poinsettia (no matter the size!) and the Christmas Bird Poinsettia Etched Dies is one of my most used sets. I didn’t use the bird on my card today but I used all the other elements from this fabulous set. I die cut the poinsettia from Crimson, Poppy Field and Gold Glitter card; the candy cane from Poppy Field and Snowdrift card and the leaves from Fern, Peridot, and Gold Glitter cardstock. I assembled the candy cane and poinsettia using wet adhesive and I then popped a double layer of foam tape onto the back of the poinsettia. This gives me lots of room to tuck in my leaves and it provides extra dimension which helps it stand out more.

I then positioned the foliage around the poinsettia and glued everything into place. Next, I took my panel to a cardboard box and covered the sentiment with a bit of scrap paper. I thought I would add some white splatter over the rest, so I mixed a little white gouache and clear water onto an acrylic block, and then using a No. 2 round brush, I flicked splatters liberally over the top section. It was set aside to dry.

To finish I adhered the top panel onto an A2 white note card and then embellished with some pretty Emerald Color Essentials Gems.

Peace On Earth

For my last card I reached for my foiling machine, some gorgeous satin foil, and the Copperplate Peace On Earth Press Plate.

Did you know that you can foil your press plates? I love that you can! We all like to find extra ways of using what we have and being able to foil AND press your press plates allows you to do just that! So, for this card, I began by taking a panel of 80lb white card and foiling the Copperplate Peace On Earth Press Plate with some Satin Champagne foil which you can find in the Satin Metallics Variety Pack. I’m a huge fan of Champagne Glimmer Hot Foil but I will go as far as saying that I may love this satin foil even more!

One it was foiled, I then took the panel and placed it into the Holiday Floral Swag 3D Embossing Folder, and ran it through my die-cutting machine.

Keeping with my traditional color palette, I grabbed three green inks – Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, and Rustic Wilderness Distress Inks. Using blending brushes, I first applied Twisted Citron over the panel, leaving some white space. I think this really helps to highlight the depth of the green but this is a matter of personal choice! I followed this by blending Mowed Lawn and then finally Rustic Wilderness was added to really deepen the colour around the edges.

You can also ink up your panel first and then emboss it and it also looks beautiful. I do feel, however, that for me, when I emboss first and then add my inks, I seem to get a stronger definition. Perhaps this is because the loaded brushes catch the raised edges. Either way, you won’t be disappointed with your results!

I trimmed the panel down slightly and then took it to my cardboard box. I added white splatter as I did on my second card, but I didn’t feel it stood out very well. So, I then went over the entire raised area adding dots with a Uni-ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen. The gel pen dots really kicked it up a notch and I thought made it much more festive!

The panel was trimmed down and added to an A2 white note card. I then foiled a plate from Comfort & Joy Sentiments Hot Foil Plate and Die Set using Satin Champagne Foil and the Glimmer Hot Foil System.  I die cut a few extra strips and adhered them together, slightly offset, for a bit of extra interest. Some extra sparkle was added courtesy of my Gold Mix Color Essential Gems.

So that brings us to the end of my cards for today. I hope that you like them! If you would like to see more of my cards, I would love to have you join me over on my blog, Instagram, Facebook or YouTube. In the meantime, thank you so much for joining me here on the blog today. I hope that you have a wonderful day!

Spellbinders Supplies:

Other Supplies

Neenah Solar White Classic Crest 80 & 110lb card, Acrylic Block, Splat Box, No.2 Round Brush, Winsor & Newton White Gouache, Distress Inks Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Rustic Wilderness, Hero Arts Blending Brushes, Tweezers, Thin Foam Tape, Nuvo Light Mist Spray, Embellishment Wand, Glossy White Pearls, Double-Sided Tape, Uni-ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen