Simple Christmas

Every year, I experiment with non-traditional colors for Christmas cards. This experimentation arises from the fact that I make well over 100 Christmas cards a year, most of which are one-offs rather than multiples.

That's a lot of different designs, and doing everything up in red and green gets pretty boring after a while. 

So a black-and-white Christmas makes sense to me, at least as an experiment. You, however, might find it a bit odd. That's okay. I did, too, until I made these three cards.

If you visit my Pinterest board titled Christmas, you'll see a number of pins that have black-and-white designs for Christmas, sometimes with kraft thrown in as well. Those pins collectively inspired this set of three cards that use images from Hero Arts' Vintage Wishes set. I adore this layout of small stamped panels on a card base. There's something so satisfying for me in the minimalism of one image, one sentiment, and tons of white space.

Vintage sets like this one are always a challenge for clean-and-simple stampers like myself. They invite layers and coloring and distressing and embellishment...and can result in incredibly rich, beautiful, and nostalgic cards.  Consider this nearly black-and-white beauty I found on Pinterest. Oh, my! It's stunningly fabulous, and everything about it is perfect!

While I have no ambition to make such a layered and embellished card as Melissa's, it did occur to me that I could get more mileage from this set (and several others) if I had the dies to coordinate. So my first order of dies has been placed, and I await it with eagerness.

What are your favorite new Christmas sets this year? I've been looking but haven't bought more Christmas stamps, seeing as I have so many. But I'd love to see what you're buying. Tempt me, please!


Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts Vintage Wishes
paper: Papertrey white
ink: Archival black
accessories: craft foam, glue