Deck the halls with one layer of holly

The lovely Ardyth is hosting One Layer Wednesday this week - or is that last week?! - and her challenge is to create a one layer card based on a song. I could've gone anywhere with this but it was half term so my time was limited, and also I needed to get on with Christmas cards, so I went with the rather predictable 'Deck the halls with boughs of holly'. Come and see:

The gorgeous focal sentiment comes from my new Merry and Type stamp set which not only contains some fabulous vintage-style sentiments but some fabulous strong images too. I can't wait to show you more cards made with it! On this card, I masked the sentiment with a cut-to-size post it note before stamping the holly outline image from Watercolour Winter and colouring it in with ink and an aquapainter.

If I zoom in you can see the effect. I love the different shades you get on the leaves with just one ink and adding a dot with a Soft Suede marker makes the berries look more realistic. After removing the mask I gave my sentiment a double frame with the Simply Scored board and sponged the edges of the card with River Rock ink.

You may have noticed (!) that my sentiment isn't as crisp as it could be. I was using my old-style ink pad, and perhaps it could do with a re-fill, but the new firm foam-filled pads give a much better, cleaner finish - even with solid stamps - with just a light tap into the ink. My new in-colour ink pads came in the new style and this is what the sentiment looks like in Raspberry Ripple...

...much crisper, even on the porous Naturals Ivory card stock, and with no pressure into the ink pad at all. Amazing!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Merry and Type, Watercolour Winter
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Gumball Green, Riding Hood Red, River Rock, Soft Suede
Card stock: Naturals Ivory
Other: Markers, Simply Scored, aquapainter, stamp-a-majig
I'd be delighted to order any of these items for you and have them delivered straight to your address in the UK, France, Deutschland, Nederland or Osterreich. I'm committed to providing excellent customer service and am always happy to offer help and advice. To place your order, just send me an email or give me a call on +44 (0) 1280 820593. Check out current special offers here.

The children went back to school yesterday. I'd tried to schedule posts during half term so that I had more time to spend with them and we did have fun. The last day of the holiday was wet and windy, so we curled up in front of the fire with a board game we'd found in a charity shop called Game of Life - does anyone remember it? It's a great game where a combination of your choices and the roll of the dice gets you through 'life'. I'm still chuckling over my youngest son, who, on landing on yet another 'pay up' square, looked up, sighed and said: "There's no end to the bills - am I right?!" This is mostly funny because he's a very English child - I think he must have been watching too much American TV!

I'll be back tomorrow with something suitable for a male birthday. Hope you'll come back and have a look!