Monochromatic Christmas Story Ornament and Snowman Couple Christmas Wreath Card by Diane Mason

Hello, and welcome back for Watercolor Weekend! 

The air has turned crisp, and with the change in season it feels like the right time to begin Christmas crafting. Today I’m sharing two winter projects: a monochromatic ornament created with the newly released 6118 – A Christmas Story stamp set and coordinating 6121 – Storybook Template die, along with a scalloped circle snowman couple wreath card. Each project brings a different kind of charm—one simple and elegant, the other playful and festive. Let’s get started!

Monochromatic Christmas Story Ornament:

Art Impressions recently released the new 6121 – Storybook Template and two new Christmas themed stamp sets (6118 – A Christmas Story and 6117 – A Cozy Christmas Set). These new stamps and dies make the most adorable little 3D scenes! And Bonnie mentioned that additional stamp sets for this new concept will be released at a later date. I can’t wait to see what else she has created for these awesome little storybook boxes!

For my Storybook Ornament, I’m using the 6118 – A Christmas Story stamp set along with the coordinating 6121 – Storybook Template die. This beautiful nativity set truly captures the miracle of Christmas, reflecting the reverence and meaning of the season in a simple, elegant way.

One of my favorite ways to watercolor is painting monochromatically. Blue is a classic choice for this style, and it felt like the perfect fit for a nighttime scene. If you’ve followed my work, you know I’m not always a fan of Tombow 565—it tends to shift toward purple on me. Sometimes that’s exactly the look I want, but for this project I needed a blue that would stay true and coordinate beautifully with the navy cardstock and blue patterned paper from the 5963 – Winter Woodland Paper Pack.

For that reason, I turned to Marvy African Violet (86), which gives a reliable, rich blue. I inked each image with African Violet and stamped onto Canson XL watercolor paper. Using a damp brush, I pulled color from the stamped lines to create natural shadows and contours. Gradually, I layered more ink from my palette, building depth until each image had just the right intensity. It’s always amazing to see how many shades and tones can emerge from a single color.

Once I had all the images painted, I used the coordinating dies to cut out the images. For the background image, I used the rectangle from the template set. I cut five oval windows from navy cardstock and glued the images into place. For the box front, I die cut a piece of patterned paper from 5963 – Winter Woodland Paper Pack. Since the paper is only 6x6, I couldn’t cut out the entire box, so I also die cut the template from a piece of navy cardstock and seamed them together to create the entire box.

To construct the ornament box, I adhered an oval frame to the background piece and added a few sparkly details to the night sky, including the Christmas star, using a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust clear gel pen; then adhered to the back interior of the box. In order from 1 – 4 (see photo above), I added foam squares to the corners and carefully stacked each layer on top of each other and adhered to the background image. I then glued the sides together, adhered the ornament topper, and added silver and white baker’s twine to hang the ornament.

 

I created a label for the back of the box using a die from 5952 – Portfolio Template Die Set. I printed out the bible quote from Luke 2:11 on my computer, die-cut and attached it to the back of the box. This lovely Christmas Story ornament is now complete and ready to hang on your tree or give as a gift!

Snowman Couple Christmas Wreath Card:

Who doesn’t love a snowman? With this adorable scalloped circle card, we get double the snowman love with a snowman couple!

For the card, I used the snowman couple from the newly released 6107 – Snowman Hugs Set, and surrounded the couple with seasonal flowers and foliage from 5828 – WC Poinsettia Set and 5829 – WC Holly Set.

I die-cut two scalloped circles from red cardstock using the largest scallop die from 6045 – Scalloped Circle Dies. Next, I selected a circle die from 5064 – Circle Double Stitched Dies that best fit the interior of the scalloped circle and drew around the circle with a pencil onto my watercolor paper. I only inked part of the snowman couple so they would be naturally framed by the wreath. I inked the snowy parts with 565 and the rest with 565/969.

Color Palette:

Snowman Couple:

• 177 (hat and scarf)
• 856, 847 (coat, hat and mitten)
• 856 (watery mix for cheeks)
• 526 (scarf and coat)
• 993, 026 (jingle bells and buttons)
• 933, 925 (carrot noses)
• 565 (shading)

Wreath:

• 249 (holly, 5829 - WC Holly Set)
• 177 (leafy vine, 5828 – WC Poinsettia Set)
• 856 (poinsettias, berry stems, 5828)
• 993 (centers of poinsettias)

I pulled some color from the holly and leafy vines to create a soft watercolor background. To refine some of the details, I used a red, brown, or green TwinTone marker. For the eyes, I used a very fine black micron pen. For the mouths, I used a pencil. I added white stripes to the blue scarf using Dr. Ph. Martin’s Bleed Proof White. I added a little clear Wink of Stella to the faces.

I die-cut the painting with the circle die from 5064, and mounted to one of the red scallop die cuts with foam tape.

For the card interior, I folded a piece of white cardstock in half and placed a circle die just above the fold line and die-cut to create a folded card to fit the interior. I inked the Merry Christmas sentiment (5953 – Woodland Critters Set) with 856 and the holly berries (5953) with 249 and 856.

I glued the white folded card to the second red cardstock scallop making sure it would align with the card front. With the scallops of the card front aligned with the back, I added glue to the front of the white card, and just above the fold and the scalloped areas above. Once dry, I bent the back of the card backwards to create the fold line at the back, keeping the front nice and round.

That’s all for now—thanks so much for stopping by for Watercolor Weekend! I hope these ideas inspire you to experiment with your favorite colors, stamps, and dies to make something uniquely yours this Christmas. Be sure to tag us in your holiday projects—we can’t wait to see your creations!

Until next time, Happy Painting!