As you can probably guess by my chatty blog posts, I am a talker. I can carry on a conversation with just about anyone, anywhere. And there’s hardly a thing I like to talk about more than stamping. On a recent plane flight, I had a wonderful conversation with the young woman sitting next to me, and the topic quickly moved to stamping. She eventually opened my Pinterest board on her laptop and subscribed to my feed. Yay!
Fast forward several weeks…I received an email from Nora. She asked me to make a special Christmas card for a good friend of hers. Her friend is a dentist and a deep-sea fisherman. Let’s see…Masculine, Christmas, Fish, Special. Those were the criteria. Here’s what I came up with:
Tips, Tricks and Reminders
- Not too fussy. As a general rule, it’s best to keep things simple when making a card for someone you don’t know. This multi-layered card is (by no means) simple, but it’s really not too fussy. The central image is really pretty simple, and the gorgeous Winter’s Frost Specialty Designer Series Paper frames the image nicely.
- Bringing in the color. This gorgeous Designer Series Paper contains four colors: Island Indigo, Coastal Cabana, Smoky Slate and Whisper White. I wanted to bring all of these colors into the central image (even if they each only have a small role there). The fish and the sentiment are Island Indigo. I inked the coral in Smoky Slate and stamped it off once before stamping it here. It adds the perfect touch. I sponged a light amount of Coastal Cabana around the edge of the Whisper White circle. All the colors are represented here. Yippee!
- A nod to fishing. One of Nora’s “requirements” was this card should somehow incorporate her friend’s love of deep-sea fishing. She wanted a marlin, but I don’t have anything with a marlin image. This fish might not be a deep-sea creature (and coral is only found in shallow water), but they are both a hearty nod to the ocean. That’s what matters, right?
This was a really fun project, and I was so happy to drop it in the mail to Nora. I really hope her friend loves the card as much as I loved making it for her and for him.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Brian
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A lucky card requester and recipient!!! Great use of all the colors in this awesome DSP Brian!!! 🙂 All your nods equal a big thumbs up!!! I hope you are feeling much better!!!
Hello Brian, I also hope you are feeling much better this morning. This is an unusual Christmas card, there is no Christmas Tree, no bling, no reds or greens, no ornaments but, that amazing DSP works perfectly to convey the Holiday message. Love the layout and the colors but, the fabulously snipped little fish, really takes center stage. Thank you for sharing.
Sure to be a hit!
I absolutely love what you did with this card Brian. Island Indigo and Coastal Cabana are such gorgeous colors together. Pretty brilliant to be able to use a fish, coral, non traditional colors and end up with a gorgeous Christmas card. I have to hand it to you Brian – you are one amazing guy.
Hoping you are well on your way to feeling “good” again.
Wowzers back at you! Love this for all nautical types!
How do you snip without bending the delicate little item you are snipping, in this case the fish? Please advise with tips and tricks!
Love this card, that set is so versatile and you even added the personal touch with a homemade envelope, Who’d a thunk fish for Christmas, perfect idea.
Hope your bug is on the way out the door and you are feeling much better.
Love it! Great job, Brian. Hope you are on the mend! Or, at least, working on it!
I was looking for that coral …it always adds so much to these cards using this set You did A great job ! I like it soft and in the back ground . I think the sentiment could be different though . ” Fishing you Happy Holidays .” ….Hope you feel better !