Mama Elephant Christmas Cards

I've been a regular on my blog lately - I hope someone is reading it and appreciating it haha. Today I have two Christmas cards to share with you using MAMA ELEPHANT goodies. Let's start by talking about my introduction to card making...

I was a scrapbooker for years. I won all the contests and was in all the magazines and on design teams. For the last four years of Creating Keepsakes magazine's existence, I was on their Dream Team. During the end of my scrapbooking "career", I was contacted by MFT. I knew nothing of the card and stamping side of things. I didn't know they were a big company so I wasn't excited by their offer. They wanted me to design stamps and be on their design team. I did that for about 10 months and then decided it wasn't for me.  At the time, I was focused on illustrating and designing for Studio Calico doing project life and I was still scrapbooking (but CK had closed shop!). I went to CHA that year and I saw all the cute stamps and cards and I thought that might be my next area of interest. I bought so much stuff and started making cards like crazy. I realized that the MFT gig was a good one about this time! haha I sent Heidi from SSS a message and asked to work for her and that started my illustrating and designing for the companies I work for now.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let me tie this story in. After the CHA where I realized my days in the scrapbooking industry were numbered as things were changing drastically, I went to a store in San Diego that had a lot of stamp sets. I bought my first few sets - most by Mama Elephant. This little Toy Shop set in my cards today was one of those sets. So Mama Elephant officially made me a stamp lover! This stamp set is still a favorite as it works so good with all of their current Christmas stamps. It is no longer available to SSS, but is available at Mama Elephant HERE. 

I Hope You Like the Gift:

I made the background of this card with Distress Oxide Inks in Tumbled Glass and Cracked Pistachio. First I sprayed the Ranger Resist Spray on the background and let it dry. That leaves nice white spots on the paper that look like snow. Next, I used some Ranger white spray paint on the background for additional snow. Then I flicked some water on it as a third type of snow. I used the ME Fancy Door Frame die over the background. 

I stamped the images with MFT Natural Ink and colored them with colored pencils I then outlined them with a fine tip black marker. I attached the house to the inside of the door opening. I then attached all of the penguins and gifts/gift wrapping supplies to the front of the card.

 I added some Tonic Nuvo Drops in glossy white over the background. I embossed the sentiment on the top of the card with white embossing powder. 

 Dear Santa: 

This card uses the Toy Shop stamp set again as well as the new Santa's Sleigh stamp set. 

To make the background, I used Texture Paste over the Falling Snow stencil on white cardstock. I added some snow banks die-cut from the ME Landscape Trio dies. 

Next, I stamped the images from both stamp sets on white cardstock with Intense Black Ink. I colored them all in with colored pencils. I used a silver metallic pen from my Kaiser Craft gel pen set for the bottom of the sled. 

I embossed the sentiment o the sleigh as I couldn't figure out where to put it and this one fit! I used white embossing powder. I used white jewels by PPP to finish the card.

And that's it for today. I'll be back in a couple days with some more Hello Bluebird cards. I'm taking advantage of this time when SSS hasn't had a new release to play with some of my other favorite products, but they have another release called Die-cember on December 1st. I have 2 watercolor card sets as part of that release, so I'll be back to Simon products soon! Happy week friends and thanks for visiting! Suzy

 

 

Comments

[Teri S.]

Oh my goodness Suzy, I adore both of your cards! I also liked reading a bit about your background. You are indeed blessed with creative talent. Thanks also for letting us know that stamp set is still available at M.E.