Santa Dear!

Today I wanted to share with you how you can take one stamp and by stamping it on different materials or using various coloring techniques you can achieve a variety of different looks. I choose the St. Nick Santa Dear stamp to work with simply because I love all things Santa and it is the perfect time to start working on your Christmas and holiday cards! Plus, I believe that hand stamping really adds a wonderful handmade feel to any card you create.

On one card, I stamped with black ink on kraft paper. I colored in the design using colored pencils and then I gave it a more smooth, finished look by coloring over each area with a blender pencil.

On another card, I stamped with black ink on vellum. I colored on the back side of the stamped image with colored pencils and again used the blender pencil. I mounted the finished stamped image on off white paper so that the image would be more visible. It is hard to see online, but the vellum gives the image a pleasantly soft effect.
On the last card, I simply stamped with black ink on white cardstock. This time, instead of using the colored pencils, I used colored chalk.
So there you have it! 3 different, but similar cards created using the same stamp with 3 different coloring options. Each technique gives the image a slightly different look and yet they are easy to create. Some other options you could try include using colored markers, such as Copic markers, or even water color pencils.

I hope you enjoyed these stamping tips and happy stamping!

Juliana