I can share today’s project with you – I’ve been asked to make some Christmas cards to be sold at bazaars across the Middle East, so I came up with this design and made 36!

I used a couple of tips I’ve learnt in printing at college for the production line – I set up lay stops for the initial print of the scene [from Anita’s] and used a stamp positioner so that the image was in the same position on all the pre-cut white card (5.5x14cm). I printed with Versamark, embossed with WOW! Primary Ebony embossing powder and heat set in batches. I then masked off the embossing and overprinted with the Stampendous Cling Geo Bubbles with Versamark, printing several at a time, again using lay stops on a separate sheet of paper. Whilst the ink was still wet, I went over the entire card with PanPastels, the first time I’d used them – fabulous product! – 470.1 Violet Extra Dark and 560.1 Phthalo Blue Extra Dark. The PanPastels blend wonderfully on the card and spread evenly and smoothly. The pastels catch on the Versamark to make the deeper coloured lines. I then used an eraser to lighten the star and the image by removing some of the pastel before fixing each with spray fixative. The background stars are then added using an opaque white pigment pen (Signo broad tip). I ran a black permanent marker around all the cut edges of the white card. I designed the image size to fit on a piece of black card that was a sixth of a sheet of A4 in portrait orientation (6.5×14.85cm). Sign, mount on black and a DL card, and wrap. Three dozen cards took approximately six hours work to make and package. Oh, and I added a mini-business card to each pack, just in case someone might be curious as to who made them 🙂