Penny Black "12 Days of Christmas 30-016" Card

I didn't have any firm ideas where I was going with this Christmas card.  It kind of evolved over the day. The finished card makes me smile.

I started with a white square piece of card. I used an anti static bag across the surface and stamped the "Merry Christmas" circle of text in Wow! Clear embossing ink, coated it with Wow! Super Fine Silver embossing powder and heat set.  (I have had this clear stamp set for maybe 15 years, long before I knew I might need the packaging to blog the details of the item, so apologies, I don't recall who made the set).

In the middle of the circle, I used an "ink on 3 Fade Out" ink pad to stamp the bird, which is part of the Penny Black Inc. "Twelve Days of Christmas 30-016" clear stamp set.  Using Versafine Clair "Morning Mist" grey ink, I stamped the "4 Calling Birds" sentiment, also from the same set.

I coloured the bird using Derwent Inktense Water Colour Pencils adding a little detail to the bag, hair and tail feathers using a glittery pink/purple gel pen.  This dictated the colour around the outer edge of the circle.

I opted for "Seedless Preserve" Distress Oxide Ink blending from the edge towards the text.  I felt it needed more, so I grabbed the Funky Fossil Designs "Holly Background Stencil" and used the same ink through the stencil to provide the holly detail.

As is often the case, I wasn't happy with the size of the card, so I chopped of 1/4" from each side, I felt it looked a better scale and then adhered it to a white card blank.