Merry Merry Christmas to You Card by Diane Mason

Hello, and welcome back for the last Watercolor Weekend of 2024!

Hello, Ai Watercolor Friends! The holiday season is here, and festive cheer is everywhere! Today's card is inspired by holiday postage stamps, featuring delightful Christmas images from the new Village add-on set 5977 – Mini Christmas Village Set.

Merry Merry Christmas to You card:

For this quick and easy card, I used all the images from 5977 – Mini Christmas Village Set, paired with sentiments from 5847- Mini Christmas Sentiment Set. The color palette was inspired by the beautiful blue, green, and red plaid patterned paper from the 5853 – Christmas Magic Paper Pack.

For my painting, I die-cut my Canson XL watercolor paper using the popular Waffle Flower Postage Collage Die. Although the die cuts six postage stamps, I used only four of them for this card. The images were inked with Versafine Onyx Black ink. This process was quick and easy, thanks to the lack of masking and the convenience of using a stamp platform for precise image stamping.

Before painting, I lightly sketched lines with a pencil to outline the snowy hills, path, and road. I began by brushing in the background skies using a mix of 526 and 565. For shading the snowy hills and the frosting on the gingerbread house roof, I used a watery mix of 565.

Colors Used:

• Christmas trees, package: 249
• Car, candy cane, lollipop, scarf, package, bow, and hatband: 856
• Gingerbread house, tree stumps: 947/969
• Tires, road, snowman hat: N25
• Package: 526
• Ornaments and star tree topper: 933, 993, 856, 173, and 526
• Gumdrops at the base of the gingerbread house: 993, 933, 856, 526, and 173

For the garland on the tree, I used a pearly white paint by Gansai Tambi, shaded with 526. The sled’s runners were colored silver using a Silver Signo pen, and I added an orange TwinTone marker for the snowman’s nose.

To create a snowy effect on each postage stamp image, I dotted in snow using Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White. I also applied the white to the tree on top of the car, the gingerbread house, and the road lines. I added details back into the images with a black TwinTone or Micron pen. As a final glittery touch, I applied a Spectrum Noir Clear Sparkle brush pen to the snowy areas and other spots that needed a hint of shimmer. While the sparkle is subtle in photos, it adds a beautiful effect in person.

With all the images complete, I placed my painting back into the stamp platform and stamped the sentiments (5847) using Versafine Onyx Black ink. On a separate piece of watercolor paper, I stamped the "Merry Merry Christmas to You" sentiment (5566) and die-cut it with the smallest oval from the 5727 – Nested Oval Dies. To mat the sentiment, I die-cut a slightly larger oval from plaid patterned paper.

For the card base, I used a top-folding A2 size and matted it with plaid patterned paper from 5853. Next, I cut a smaller rectangle mat from red cardstock and attached the painting using foam tape. Before adhering the red cardstock to the card, I wrapped red and white baker's twine around the cardstock three times, securing the ends at the back.

To finish, I popped up the oval sentiment with foam tape and added red gems for a festive touch. The red cardstock panel was then adhered to the card base using double-sided tape.

Of course, I decorated the interior of my card because I’m extra like that—lol! The sentiment is from 5566. I used leftover strips of the plaid and red paper to create the paper ribbon.

For the wreath and bow, I painted them using colors 249, 173, and 856, with 526/565 for the background. The wreath was die-cut with a round postage stamp die from the Postage Collage Die Set and adhered to the paper ribbon with glue.

I hope you enjoyed today’s card. Even if you don’t have all the dies and sentiments I used, you can still create something similar with the Ai images you already have in your stamp stash.

If you create any cards to share with your friends and family this holiday season, we would love to see them - be sure to tag us on social media! Also, stop by the blog later today, Jami will be sharing her beautiful card for Watercolor Weekend.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone for visiting the blog for Watercolor Weekend. Wishing you and your family a very happy holiday season, along with a creative, joyful, and prosperous 2025! And, as always - Happy Painting!