The first time I saw the Here Comes Santa Claus stamp set* from Simon Says Stamp’s Joy For You release, I immediately thought “what an ideal stamp set for Waffle Flower’s Postage Collage die set.” These 30 tiny stamps could not be better suited to create little vignettes inside each postage square.

I started by die cutting heavy white cardstock with that same Postage Collage die. Next, I wanted to do a very simple sky and ground image in each square. I literally traced the edge of a masking tape roll on a piece of scrap paper, hand cut it to get a big circle, and used that as my stencil to make my snowy hills.

Before ink blending my sky, I laid down one of the Waffle Flower Postage Collage Stencils (it has the individual blocks on it) and then held my handcut circle down on top of that. I used my Waffle Flower Shader 1+ blending brushes and ink blended Concord & 9th Lakefront ink in each square to get my 6 skies. Then, using my MISTI and VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink, I stamped my little scenes into each square (so fun!). I also stamped my sentiment in one of the squares as it fit so well there.

I wanted to see snow, so I used Sakura Classic White Gelly Roll Medium Point Pens in sizes 05 and 08 and carefully dotted on snow where I wanted it.

To finish out the postage look and feel, I did 2 more things. I stenciled the striped border using another two stencils from the same set of Waffle Flower Postage Collage Stencils. I used the same Lakefront ink and then a shade from Stampin’ Up! called Berry Burst. An ideal substitute for this color would be Altenew’s Magenta ink.

I also heat embossed two Waffle Flower Postage Collage stamps onto Spellbinders Mulberry ColorWheel cardstock. The embossing powder is Brutus Monroe’s Alabaster ultra fine embossing powder. I die cut the little stamped images (from Postage Collage Stamps) using dies from Postage Collage and Postage Collage Blocks dies.

I sandwiched a piece of Spellbinders Blue Spruce ColorWheel cardstock between my stamped panel and my back A2 striped panel. I used thin foam adhesive under the postage panel.

I was really happy with how this turned out.

I stamped on each star, using my MISTI, using Concord & 9th Rainforest ink, Altenew Dark Night ink, and Altenew Plum ink. Then I carefully ink blended around the edges of each star with the same ink using my Waffle Flower Shader 1+ blending brushes.

I took a small piece of my leftover Vanilla Malt cardstock and dry embossed it with the Simon Says Stamp Tiny Tufts Embossing Folder. I cut it to be about 1.5” x 5.25”. I took another small piece and stamped the Many Blessings sentiment with the Dark Night ink. I took a small scrap of navy blue cardstock and cut both it and the sentiment into rhomboid shapes and glued them together.

I took my cardbase and cut off about 1” of the top flap. Then I glued on a strip (about 1/4”) of matte gold cardstock on the edge of that. Again, I’ve had mine awhile, but it seems identical to the Simon Says Stamp Matte Gold Cardstock. I also glued my dry embossed strip of cardstock to the back flap, so it showed at the front.

Next, based on an arrangement I had figured out before I started stamping, I adhered all the stars onto the cut front flap using Simon Says Stamp Black Foam Adhesive Squares. I trimmed down the stars on every edge (not easy on the right side since they were not hanging off the edge). I glued down the sentiment onto my largest star.

Finally, I added some Pinkfresh Studio Metallic Pearls in Matte Gold. I love matte gold at Christmas.

If you shop from the highlighted product links above, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. It is much appreciated and helps fund my crafting. Also, any item first marked with an asterisk * was provided by an online store. Otherwise, I bought my supplies.

I cut my front A2 panel from the Cranberry cardstock, and also die cut a 3.5” square.

I lined up where my big square would sit on my A2 panel and stamped my “Here Comes Santa Claus” sentiment below that in Versamark ink. I heat embossed that with the Gold Rush embossing powder.

Next, I stamped 9 images from the stamp set (which has a whopping 30 images on it) onto a piece of Cranberry cardstock using Versamark embossing ink. I applied the Gold Rush embossing powder and embossed with my heat gun. I did 4-5 images at a time like this.

Next, using the smallest square die (1 inch square) from the
Simon Says Stamp Artful Palette die set, I die cut all 9 images.

The hard part was getting the grid with the 9 squares adhered to the 3.5” square just right. I tried all sorts of ways that were way too tedious. Finally, I just measured where my 1” square center image would go on my big square and marked where the edges of the small square would land. Next, using foam adhesive and liquid glue to give me some wiggle time, I adhered that center square. Then I just eyeballed about 1/16” and used a T-square to line up all my other small squares and adhered them.

I also used foam adhesive to adhere my big square to my A2 panel with the gold embossed sentiment. I decided to skip any embellishments and just let the imagery and the colors shine. I have a brief video on this on my Instagram reels.

If you shop from the highlighted product links above, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. It is much appreciated and helps fund my crafting. Also, any item first marked with an asterisk * was provided by an online store. Otherwise, I bought my supplies. 

Christmas time can be joyous and wonderful, and also exhausting, especially for moms. Moms often end up being the chief planner, cook, maid, gift buyer, decorator, hostess, and peace maker during the holiday season. Spellbinders new Merry Mayhem collection reflects this kind of exhaustion that many of us feel, sometimes before December has even begun. 

I used the Snow Done die set along with the Joy-ish stamp set to make a simple shaker card. All my cardstock is from Spellbinders ColorWheel cardstock pack of 48. 

I doubled the foam tape I used behind my front panel, die cut using Essential Arches die set, to make room for the thickness of my penguin and iceberg die cuts as well as my sequin mix. 

I experimented with several techniques to get a tie dye look. Using just the edges of a rainbow of Distress Ink cubes, I made concentric rectangles on a 4.5 x 6.25” (that’s A6 size) piece of Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor paper. I added water to the very center and hoped it would give a tie dye look as the water spread. It almost worked, but left a distinctly rectangle shape of ink swipes on the paper. I abandoned that one and then just tried to use my Distress Ink Sprays on wet watercolor paper. I used Spun Sugar, Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral, Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed, and a very small amount of Shabby Shutters (barely visible). That worked better, but I still lacked the concentric circles I was looking for. I took this panel and simply added big concentric circles with a paintbrush dipped in clean water. That got closer to what I wanted, and I stopped there to dry the panel and flatten it under some books for a little while.

Next, I stamped the peace-hand sign in black VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink in the middle of the panel. I did the same with the 2 sentiments. I die cut this with one die from the Spellbinders Essential Modern Ovals die set. I cut a larger oval from Taylored Expressions Lollipop Cardstock.

I really wanted a sunburst in the background of my oval, but I ran into a problem (and found a workaround). I had a great 6x6” Sunburst Stencil from Waffle Flower but it didn’t cover an A6 panel. I ink blended with Altenew’s Maple Yellow ink from the center outwards with a large blending brush. On the left and right, I could go to the edge of the paper before I ran into the edge of the stencil. However, on the top and bottom, I had to make sure I didn’t touch the frame edge of the stencil with my blending brush. I removed the stencil and then extended the sunburst ray edges with Post It tape and kept blending to the edge of my paper. It worked great. (See photos for details)

I trimmed about 1/8” from each side of my yellow sunburst panel and used foam adhesive to mat it on an A6 piece of black cardstock. Next I glued on my oval. I added just a couple gems in the center of the largest flowers for a bit of sparkle.

If you shop from the highlighted product links above, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. It is much appreciated and helps fund my crafting. Also, any item first marked with an asterisk * was provided by an online store. Otherwise, I bought my supplies. 

I cut 3 pieces of white cardstock to 4.5” x 6.25”. I took my first panel and dry embossed it with the Simon Says Stamp Dotty Diamonds Embossing Folder. I then cut it down to 3.5” x 5.25” and distressed the edge of this. I cut my second panel to 4” x 5.75”. I left my third panel as is.

I stamped the peace-sign hand three times. First, using Concord & 9th’s Harbor ink, then using Taylored Expressions Lavender Glaze ink, and finally using a retired Stampin’ Up! colored called Soft Seafoam. An ideal substitute for the Stampin’ Up! color is Altenew’s Pistachio Fresh Dye Ink. I fussy cut all three hands and adhered them to the front of the embossed panel as shown, with the blue one on top.

Now for the die cutting trick. I stamped the sentiment “You don’t have to carry it all alone” with black VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink on a piece of white cardstock. I used the smallest tag die from Simon Says Stamps Rounded Tags die set, and by making sure the bottom edge of the tag was always hanging off my cutting mat (thereby not getting cut), I was able to cut the label in the shape you see, after it was stamped. I first put the die to the left of the sentiment and cut the top and sides, then switched it to the right side of the sentiment, cutting the top and sides of the tag shape. It was a little tricky, but it worked perfectly. And using the tag holes, I threaded some Simon Says Stamp Metallic Silver Cord through the holes and around the back of the embossed decorated panel.

I layered all three of these panels on top of one another, using thin foam adhesive under the embossed panel.

I finished by adding some clear, iridescent sequins in 2 sizes.

If you shop from the highlighted product links above, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you. It is much appreciated and helps fund my crafting. Also, any item first marked with an asterisk * was provided by an online store. Otherwise, I bought my supplies.