Home for the Holidays

11.29.2020

I was excited to have a few days off work to make some holiday cards. Thanksgiving was going to be low-key and I needed a mental break from work. So, off to the craft room, I went. Last year, Hero Arts had this front door fancy die and it probably one of my all-time favorite product from them. I needed to make 9 of these cards for a friend and it took all weekend.

I started by die cutting 10 of the door front from Hammermill 110lb premium color copy cover paper. I just started using this paper since I have a fairly decent Copic marker collection now. The paper was recommended by some fellow paper crafters in the Hero Arts Fanatics group on Facebook. I used copic markers to color the brick background. It was a fast coloring, not super detailed. I used a combination of C-0, C1, C3, C5, RV29, and RV69. I stuck to mostly the C marker combos though. I used YG17, YG67 and G29 for the garland and greenery. The bow was RV29 and C3 to add shading.

Then I die cut doors, sconces and window from a bunch of different papers. I know I used Hero Arts Cranberry, Black and Pebble but the others I pulled from my stash.

I cut the doors from the door frame on some and mixed and matched until they all looked good.

I die cut loads of wreaths and topiaries from the Hammermill paper and sat down to color one night while watching tv. I left the bows and planters because I wasn’t sure if I wanted them red or grey. I used YV17, YV67, YV29, and E44. I only used two greens per wreath/topiary. Either the lighter two or darker two.

I glued down all the doors and window frames using Hero Arts Precision Glue. I love this stuff, I just ordered two more tubes! Then I glued down the sconces. On a couple of them I colored the wall sconces instead of using black card stock. I also colored in some of the door frame accents for some visual interest.

I masked off the brick and door and lightly water colored the porch. a few didn’t look so good so I used Copic marker to cover it. Once the porch was colored I used the Misti to stamp the door mat. There were a couple that really didn’t look good so I just stamped and fussy cut welcome mats to cover.

Before I attached the wreaths and topiaries to the card front I colored the bow and planter to match. I also glued vellum to the back die of the window and wall sconces.

I stamped a sentiment inside the top-folding card front. I did some very light ink blending where the window and lights are. I tested it without the ink blending and it made a huge difference so I took the little extra time to add it.

Finally, I could attach the card front to the panel! I used the precision glue so I had time to line the edges up. As a finishing touch I found some silver baubles and black Nuevo drops for the doorknobs.

Here’s a look at them all together. Thanks for reading, I hope you had a crafty Thanksgiving weekend.