Monday, August 22, 2011

One-Layer Christmas

Hero Arts' new set Greatest Gift is awesomely easy to use and perfect for the clean-and-simple stamper who wants to make explicitly Christian Christmas cards. The sentiments are all faith-based, and the images are silhouettes of the nativity.


My first instinct with this set is to emboss it in gold or silver, but for some reason, when I contemplated making this layout, black and white came to mind. It just feels right, somehow. And those three clear gemstones make me so very happy. It's rather bold, don't you think?

This would be an easy one to mass produce, if you go for that sort of thing, LOL!

Have you started your Christmas cards yet? Would you even consider using black and white for Christmas?

32 comments:

  1. Black and white and bling -- perfect! With a silhouette-type image especially, I would certainly consider going the black and white Christmas card route.

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  2. i really love this card! and this set, i have it on order and i can't wait for it to arrive...i've wanted a silhouette nativity set since i started stamping... and of course hero arts comes through for me!

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  3. This is fantastic! I think I will get this set to make my parent's Christmas cards this year.

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  4. I love this card.

    I'm going to tell you it ticks me off though! (not really) See I can NEVER get that much solid black to stamp THAT boldly. And if this had bald patches and whatnot it would not be nearly as fantastic.

    I tried to explain to my stamps and inks that I'm trying to be like you and all awesome with CAS style so I needed them to stamp perfectly for me, but they tell me they want to be owned by someone into vintage grunge look so they can stamp all random and splotchy.

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  5. I haven't made any Christmas cards yet. I still have some store bought cards, and being frugal, I'll use them too, only making cards for family and special friends. I have made black and white Christmas cards -- last year using a Stampin Up set at a gathering. The image was a bit similar to the one you used, but I didn't buy it even though I really liked it. Seeing your beautiful card makes me wish I had bought it!

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  6. I would LOVE black and white for our cards, but DH prefers traditional Christmas colors, so I try to play nice :) This set is beautiful - Hero Arts rocks again! Great card, Susan. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. I made a couple of Christmas cards the other day, or let's say I started on them. Black and white is not a combination I would have picked, but it works with that nativity scene you chose. As always, your cards are amazing:)

    Petra

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  8. I always start making Christmas cards in Jan., and I probably have close to 80, maybe more, done already. Christmas cards are my favorite type to make :)

    I dont think I've ever done a black and white Christmas card. Just not what I'm comfortable with...I'm much more traditional when it comes to Christmas colors. That being said, I think your card came out wonderfully!

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  9. I absolutely LOVE this, Susan. Love the statement, love what it stands for and love the card :)

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  10. Aw.. how I love this stamp! You showcased it perfectly!!

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  11. Black and White - Stunning and Elegant! Susan, I love your card! I have started my Christmas cards and YES, I would consider black and white for a Christmas card! Always

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  12. sorry, I hit enter before I was done! Always a pleasure to visit you....

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  13. The bit of bling completes the beautiful black and white perfectly. Simply beautiful.

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  14. You're right, it would have been a bit too much embossed in silver or gold. The black looks perfect as a silhouette. Yes I have started Christmas cards in a limited sort of way, and I would consider any colour for the season and have used black and white.

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  15. No, nada. Color has no bearing and yes I'd do something like this beautiful card in black and white. It looks perfect.

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  16. Stunning card. Love this stamp too...its in my wish list.

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  17. I bought Come to Bethlehem last year to have for this year's cards....it would be so simple to just do it in black and white like you've done rather than the gold embossing I had thought I would do. Thanks for the time saver...and the bling is just enough to lift it.

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  18. Hi, Oh yes, love this card, clean and simple, black and white why not? Especially with the traditional image you've used.
    I haven't started this years cards, yet. I just love bling at Christmas, if it gets in front of me it'll probably be plastered in glitter and the nearer it gets the more I add. Big smile, Gay xxx

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  19. Beautiful card! Yes, I've started, I should probably start writing in them as I make them, to give me more of a chance of posting them on time, LOL. Yes, I use black and white, and any other colour combo that takes my fancy. I do like traditional Christmas colours, but don't ONLY do traditional because I get carried away with my "creative" ideas. :-)
    Michelle.

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  20. What a great idea! This should work well with the stamp set I just ordered (SU Resounding Joy) which is all words.

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  21. Omygosh, I love this! I have to confess, when I saw this stamp set here the other day, I certainly didn't see any vision in it. Wrong! This is so classy, so elegant, so spiritual, I just love it. And I think the black and white beats embossed silver or gold, hands down. I think it speaks to the humanity of the situation, instead of the royalty of it. The bling is perfect. No, I would never think to do Christmas cards in black and white --- I already told you I have no vision! And like Erin, I don't have great luck with inking solid silhouette stamps. Did you line up all the stamps on one acrylic block, or do each one individually with a stampamajig? Great card, Susan!

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  22. An absolutely stunning card! This is closest I've seen to the perfect Christmas card. I've not started my cards yet this year but need to get busy very soon.

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  23. Wow ~ this is a lovely idea, effectively executed as usual! It's just too bad those wise men are so often pictured in the nativity scene, several months before they actually arrived...!

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  24. Like others have said before me, stunning card, well executed. Getting all that solid black for the silhouettes is amazing! And I love the touch of bling.

    Black and white? At first I thought " No, couldn't do that for Christmas. I need some color". Then I thought "but silhouette stamps look so perfect in black". Finally decided if I had made this card I probably couldn't have stopped myself from sponging in some color for a sky, which would ruin it of course.

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  25. The three gemstones are perfect to take the starkness off the black and white. I've only ever done one Christmas card close to black and white (it was grey and white). I tend to stick to red, green, gold, silver, and, for snow scenes, blue and white.

    Yes, I've started my Christmas cards - the Splitcoaststampers Christmas Card Challenge is perfect for me - I commit to 6 per month and that way, come November, they're all done and I don't panic!!

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  26. Absolutely stunning! Clean, simple and perfect!

    Yes, I'm well into my Christmas cards - but I think that's because I've been doing various challenges that focus on Christmas - I have to make a lot of cards, so it'll be great to be ahead this year.

    Black and white for Christmas - yes! Works for me!

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  27. I love your cards. So simple and so beautiful.

    Hanne

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  28. What a stunning card, Susan! Perfectly elegant! I still have not made even one Christmas card, but that's not unusual for me. I can't make Christmas cards when the weather is warm. I would consider black and white with this type of image. It's gorgeous, and I would be ordering it now if I hadn't used a similar SU image a few years ago. I did it in brown on a blue card base with only one bling on the star. It was non-traditional colors, but it made me very happy!

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  29. I haven't started my Christmas cards yet... partly because my stamping stuff has been packed away while hubby built me a new work area. Since he finished it, I've been moving slowly getting everything back into place so haven't been stamping.

    I would definitely consider the black and white as I love doing things that surprise people and not sticking to the traditional, but since I don't really do CAS cards, I would probably have some layers/mats in whatever colors I'd choose and then a black and white stamped panel similar to this for the focal point.

    I really like your card and love what you do with CAS, but so far I just haven't been able to make and send a CAS card.

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  30. Something tells me there's going to be a lot of black & white Christmas cards this year. I had pretty much decided this set was going to be my choice for this year's cards - now I know for sure it is. I think I can even use just the center (manger) for my ATCs.As always, thanks for the inspiration.

    Dorothy C.

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  31. This card is elegant! I have 80+ cards I send out each year so I do mass produce but in batches. That's when I have the hard time choosing who gets what from which batch!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment!