Create a smile: (last minute) masculine christmas cards

Hello there, Nicole here.

I have two quick and easy masculine christmas cards for you today.

I realized that most of my christmas cards were cute but I needed some masculine ones as well. And because it's December already, I needed them fast. So here are two quick and easy cards I made using watercolors, embossing powders and Distress Oxide Inks.

Card no.1 - mistletoe

stamp the mistletoe on watercolor paper with a crisp black ink that is a bit sticky and cover it with clear embossing powder. Heat set the powder with your heating tool.
color your image with watercolors or watercolor markers and let it dry
use a blending tool to add Distress Ink to your panel. Start with the lightest color on the edges and get super light towards the middle to create a halo. Add a darker color of Distress Oxides to the edges to create more depth.
sprinkle on some water drops to add a bit of texture/interest to your background.
stamp the greeting in crisp black ink
stamp some little stars with the lighter Distress Oxide ink to add a finishing touch

Card no.2 - globe

stamp the globe and the stand on watercolor paper with a crisp black ink that is a bit sticky and cover it with clear embossing powder. Heat set the powder with your heating tool.
color your image with watercolors or watercolor markers and let it dry. Make sure it's completely dry, so the embossing powder for the next step will not stick to your entire image
stamp the stars and lines with a sticky clear ink and heat emboss it with gold embossing powder
add a little watercolored shadow underneath the stand
stamp the greeting in a matching dye ink or Distress Oxide ink

Clear embossing powder over black ink helps you to stay in the lines while coloring with watercolors if you need to be quick
for me, watercolors or watercolor markers are easier to use if I want to do some quick coloring (projects with alcohol markers or colored pencils take me much longer)
vintage colors like these warm brown tones give your stamped image a cool retro look
gold embossing powder adds a bit of festive bling without being too much