If you have been following my blog for a while, you know one thing you don’t usually see here are vintage Christmas cards! But this week the gals over at Merry Monday threw me for a loop – yes…the theme is to create a vintage Christmas card!
I don’t have ANY stamps that fit this bill, so I pulled out my trusty Stampscapes stamps and sat down to create my own vintage feel. Now if you’re a VIP Community member you’ll get to see exactly how I created this in a step by step video…I know all the members who love scenic cards will just love it. And if you want other exclusive videos, be sure to get the creative tips e-letter!
Every now and then it’s good to step outside your comfort zone and try something new. I know doing just that keeps my creative juices sharp! So how exactly do you make a vintage card.
Well, first I googled it…lol! Yes, I know it seems rather cut and dry, but like I said, this is not my style, so I thought I’d surf for a little visual help. I came across several how to tutorials for turning photos into a vintage look with Photoshop and that gave me my color palette. Basically, muted colors – a little more on the earthy side with some framing – which I would do with a scene anyway.
The scene is built on a foundation of Crumb Cake card stock. I used a stipple brush to color in my scene along with some Stampin’ Up! Classic Ink pads. For the road I used Tea Dye and the stream – Stormy Sky Distress inks. My hills are in Pear Pizazz, the barn is in Riding Hood Red, the clouds are in Midnight Muse and the stamping was done in Early Espresso.
You’ll want to add some concentrated Pigment ink in the form of a q-tip from a white Craft Pad, I used one by Stampin Up and a pigment pen – Signo Uniball Gel pen. I also stippled a little with the white craft ink to get a muted white feel. To get the vintage feel around the edges, use a mini sponge tool and some walnut stain distress ink.
Of course there is quite a bit of masking that went on to build the scene along with coloring certain elements. I just wish I had masked the sky off when I did the hills – at the horizon they are a bit green – oh well!
Overall, to build the scene, I used the following stampscapes stamps – Snowy Covered Bridge, Single Pine & Trees and Hills from Nature Set 1, Tree Duo Sm, Lilly Grass, Snowy Rocks Sm, and Cloud Cumulous Large. I stretched out the scene a bit with an Early Espresso Marker in a few spots.
To keep with the vintage feel, the greeting is embossed in Pewter rather than a shiny silver. The finishing touch of course is the sliver just shy of 1/16” matting in Very Vanilla popped up on dimensionals onto Early Espresso. My card measures 6 3/8 x 5 3/8”.
Overall, I think my vintage Christmas card turned out pretty cool. I’m glad I tried it out! Have a crafty weekend!
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About Ingrid Blackburn
Stunning card Ingrid, your vintage winter scene is beautiful. Thank you for joining us for Merry Monday this week.
Thanks Nina – it was a super fun challenge. 🙂
WOW!!! Absolutely stunning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Merry Monday.
Deanne 🙂
Thanks Deanne! 🙂
WOW! Totally delightful Ingrid, your card really has a very professional look and all the design elements that you used have made a gorgeous creation. Thanks for playing at Merry Monday.
Thanks so much Susan! It was fun to figure out and how to do the whole Vintage look. Your tag was absolutely stunning. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
This reminds me of Currier & Ives a lot. It’s beautiful. Perfect Christmas card. Merry Monday is going to love it.
What a compliment! Those are some amazing scenes. Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
WOW!! This is incredible, Ingrid! So much detail and so beautifully done, too!
YOU are the BEST! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Jennifer! It was a lot of fun – you should give it a try. 🙂
What a beautiful scene, Ingrid! You could copy this and use the prints to do your cards this year or frame it. Or you could send it to me and I’d frame it, LOL! I love the pewter embossing too that adds just a touch of old time elegance! Thanks so much for sharing this with us at Merry Monday!
Thanks Bonnie – aren’t you sweet! I have it on my desk – usually I put them in my Christmas basket…but this one is just special. I just loved that challenge, was really a great one. 🙂
Your vintage card is just gorgeous, Ingrid! I struggled with this challenge but it was fun once I figured out what to do and found some DSP that worked. 😉
Merry Monday every now and then throws something out there that is a real challenge! I was unsure if I could pull it off, but so glad I tried – I love this card! Your Santa DSP is SO awesome – I love that guy. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Stunning card! You did a beautiful job creating a vintage card.
Thanks my friend – you will love the video, must try this one – I see you making several for Christmas! 🙂
You are amazingly creative, love the feel of your card, almost could step in and takedown the road. You so nailed the vintage look. I dropped in to Merry Monday and there are some beautiful vintage cards, everyone did a great job. I am finally catching up, hope to read your last two blogs soon.
Thanks Carol – I love how it turned out. I love being stretched creativity wise and that challenge definitely has me stretch from time to time. 🙂
Are you kidding me? Pretty cool? This card is absolutely gorgeous! I hope you entered it in the Merry Monday challenge!
Glad you liked it! Don’t worry. ..I did. 🙂