Mama Elephant Christmas Cards

Mama Elephant recently came out with a holiday line of stamps and dies that were used in their 6 year celebration blog hop. I was lucky enough to be part of that hop, so I received two sets to work with. That post is HERE if you want to check out my 5 cards. But then I had to go back and buy three more sets as I loved them that much! Well actually four if you count the greetings stamp set as well. They are all linked at the end of this post, but I've primarily focused on the Santa's Sleigh stamp set for this post. I'm saving my Penguin cards for another post as they deserve their own spot! 

Here are my two cards - let me know if they make you drool over these cute stamps as much as I do!

This little Santa cracks me up. He looks so grumpy! I stamped the images on white cardstock with MFT Natural ink and colored them in with colored pencils. I then went back and doodled outlines around the images (messy on purpose in case you were worried about my abilities to trace!).  I used Nuvo drops in Gray Mist on the glasses and on the top of the post.

For the background, I actually made this one as part of my "making backgrounds ahead of time" blog post if you want to check it out. I used a stencil by SSS called Falling Snow. I rubbed Moonstone Glitter Paste over it for the sparkly snow flakes. I used the Mama Elephant Madison Avenue Framed Tags die set for the frame. I die-cut some a snowy hill and attached that over the background and then put the frame over that. All of those were popped up with foam tape and put on a white cardstock base. 

I stamped the sentiment from the set on the snow bank with Black Intense Ink. I arranged all of the little stamps over the hill and background. I added some Nuvo Drops in White Blizzard over the hill to match the ones on the background. I also added three snowflake sequins to the background. 

This is another background I made earlier for my blog post linked above. I used Distress Resist Spray over Ranger watercolor paper. I then rubbed Distress Inks over the spray leaving white spots for snow. I embossed the sentiment from the Scripty Christmas stamp set on the bottom of the front of the card. I attached a frame from the Mama Elephant Park Ave Framed Tags die set over the background. 

I stamped all of the images with MFT Natural Ink and then colored them in with colored pencils. I used a white Uniball over Santa's white areas as sometimes my pencils smear. For areas I want really smooth, I use a lighter shade of the same color over the area to smooth the color. So on the reindeer, I colored him first with brown pencil. I then added a light beige pencil over the brown to smooth it. I've mentioned before I like Prismacolored pencils best for smoothing as they are wax based where Faber Castelle are oil based, so they show pencil markers more (which has other benefits so I had to have both haha). I outlined the images with a fine tip black marker. I used a silver uniball over the sleigh things - rudders? 

I attached all of the images over the background. I used presents from two other stamp sets shown below as well. I wanted them to look like they were flying out of the sleigh and falling down to the earth so they could hit me in the head! I added some white glossy Nuvo Drops over the background as well. 

I hope you enjoyed this little stroll down holiday lane - dang, it's coming fast isn't it! At least I will have some cards made thanks to these darling ME stamp sets I couldn't resist! Have a good day friends! Suzy

Comments

[Jan Elmore]

So dang cute! I love the Glue Dots! I use them for lots of projects outside of card making too!

[Stephanie]

These stamps are too cute! I really have to pick up some glue dots - they seem to do wonders.

[Sharon Gullikson]

That's a cute scene. It put me in the mood to make my cards...

[Kelly Santi]

Oh be still my heart, this is the absolute cutest! I love the bright white space - it really highlights the whimsy and color of the darling little North Pole Santa! Love the snow and the outside frame - the Glue dots did a great job snuggling all of this in one creative scene! TFS!