Christmas Cuddlers

I recently purchased some new rubber from Suzanne at Quietfire Design and was so happy to have a bit of time to play this weekend. I tried out the acrylic block collage technique recently posted on Splitcoaststampers to the Technique Lovers Challenge. The idea is to smoosh a few inks on a flat acrylic block, spritz with water and stamp the block onto cardstock, then overstamp other stamps in a collage effect. There are some lovely samples in the gallery. 

For my first try above, I used Distress Inks. These inks are designed to bleed, blend and wick, so they interacted with each other as I overstamped. It gives a soft, dreamy look. I used snowflakes and flourishes from Quietfire Design for the collage. The "Christmas Cuddlers" are words that are meant to be nestled together, and I used Christmas and snowflakes for these cards. All Quietfire stamps are calligraphy; painstakingly drawn by hand - even the flourishes and snowflakes! As someone who is a Failed Calligrapher, I really appreciate being able to add this special touch to my cards that a computer just can't duplicate.

For my second attempt, I used a Kaleidocolor gradient stamp pad in Blue Breeze. This is a more defined, sharper effect. For both cards, I added some Diamond Stickles to the centers of the snowflakes to enhance them a bit.

Not too bad for a one layer standard A2 card. I think this might be the answer to the last minute Christmas card rush!