Do You Love Santa On The Chimney? Day 3

Santa on the Chimney is our Christmas card for Day 3. Learn how to make this traditional-looking card here in this article.

We’ll use a couple of coloring techniques to make this beautiful card. And, we’re using the rubber stamp set that Tim Holtz did for Stamptember this year. But, you can use any stamp that you have in your stash to create a similar card.

Blending The Background

Chimney Card Color Wash

To begin, we’ll blend our background onto an A2 size (4 1/2″ x 5 1/2″) piece of smooth white cardstock. To demonstrate how to do this we’ll lightly trace where the stamp will be on the card panel. Or, we could stamp the image with a very light ink color. We do this because it gives us an idea of where the images of the stamp will be.

When you go outside on a dark night, you see a kind of halo of blue that is lighter around buildings. We’re going to try to replicate that in our card. Beginning with the blue ink we’ll blend over the line that we made on the card panel. We do that because we don’t want to see any white on the background behind the house and trees.

Intensifying the Dark Sky

This way we don’t waste ink where you cannot see, but you have enough just to cover the area of sky that you will see. Once we have the blue across the top of the card and down the right side then we’ll blend in a little purple ink just along the top edge of the card panel and kind of mimicking the slope of the roof.

The purple will help to darken the sky. And then we’ll blend in just a little bit of black ink along the top and right side of the top right corner to intensify the dark sky.

Painting the Chimney Card’s Focal Point

While our background is drying we’ll paint our focal point. We’ll begin by smooshing each of the ink pads onto a palette or glass work surface. We’ll use an eye dropper to add a drop of water next to each color and then we’ll mix the ink with a little bit of water with a fine time paintbrush. And then we’ll paint it onto the images.

Here are some tips on how I painted the image:

• Add a wash of clean water to the image that you are going to paint before adding any color. You do this because it helps to move the color rather than sinking into the cardstock
• Trees – leave some white spaces to create snow on the branches
• Santa – color his suit, hat, and bag once with the red, then mix a tiny bit of black ink in with the red to create a darker red and add it to where the shadows would be. Dilute the black ink with a lot of water to create shadows on the white pieces of the suit.
• Roof – Because this is a night scene there will be shadows on the white snow on the roof. To create them just pick up some of the light tan ink and add it to the roof to create those shadows.
• Chimney – Use black ink, but add enough water to create a nice gray.
• House – Mix the yellow and brown inks to create a nice color for the house that doesn’t overwhelm the card
• Sky Around the Trees – Paint the white spaces around each of the trees with the same blue ink that you use for blending the background. We do this because it will kind of fade into the background and make the trees pop.

Finishing the Chimney Card

Once the painting has dried we can trim it out. We’ll use a paper trimmer to trim the bottom and left edges, taking care to cut them square with each other. Then we’ll fussy cut out the rest.

Adding the Sentiment

Now, we can place the background in a stamp positioning tool and we’ll place the focal image on top of it right where it will be attached. We do this because now we can decide where to add the sentiment. Then, we’ll pick up the sentiment stamp with the lid of the stamp positioning tool.

Now we’ll use white pigment ink to stamp the sentiment onto the background. We do this because the distress oxide ink reacts with the pigment ink to give an almost luminous color to the sentiment. Next, keeping the background and stamp in the same positions we’ll stamp it again with watermark ink. And then we’ll heat emboss it with a glittery embossing powder.

Assembling the Chimney Card

OK, we’re almost done. Now we’ll attach the background to an A2 card base with a glue runner. And then we’ll pop up the focal point. I prefer to use a double-sided adhesive foam sheet for a large piece like this but you can also use foam tape to do so. Take care to align the bottom left corners.

Making It a Snowy Scene

The last thing we’d do is add a little snow. And, we’ll do so by splattering white metallic watercolor paint over the card by loading a small paintbrush with the paint and tapping it on an acrylic block over the card.

And that’s it, isn’t this a beautiful nighttime Christmas card?

Supplies for Santa On The Chimney Card

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• Cardstock: Card base – Neenah Classic Crest 110lb Solar White; Card Background and Card Panel – Neenah Classic Crest 80lb Solar White
• Stamp: Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Stamptember 2022
• Ink: Distress Oxide – Chipped Sapphire, Villainous Potion, Black Soot, Pumice Stone, Walnut Stain, Candied Apple, Mustard Seed, Tattered Rose, Mowed Lawn; Pigment Ink – Ranger Ink Glacier White; Watermark Ink – Ranger Ink Watermark Resist
• Embossing Powder: Brutus Monroe Fairy Dust
• Stamp Positioning Tool: Sizzix Stencil and Stamp Tool
• Heat Tool: Sizzix Dual Speed
• Adhesives: Gina K Designs Adhesive Dot Runner; Scrapbook.com Double-sided Adhesive Foam Sheet

Need More Christmas Card Inspiration?

Check out these articles:

• HOW TO MAKE CHRISTMAS TREE CARD – DAY 2
• HOW TO MAKE FIRST SNOW CARD – DAY 1
• HOW TO CREATE A WINTER WONDERLAND
• HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW NORDIC SPELLBINDERS RELEASE?
• MASS PRODUCE CARDS, WANT TO LEARN HOW?
• 25 IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS CARDS THAT YOU CAN MAKE