Hello crafty friends and welcome to another of the cards I demo’d on Clarity Social TV yesterday afternoon, this time featuring the entertaining elf letterbox & alphabet stamp sets. I’m going to share this happy family (Elvis, Elfie, Evie & Miss Elf) with a few current challenges – Double D‘s theme is ‘winter’, Time Out want festive clothes (and this little crew have got their best Christmas outfits on!) and Merry Little Christmas speaks for itself!

There’s a bit more to this card than the last couple I’ve shared, so stick with me! I started by stamping the elves and their letterboxes onto a square of stencil card. My trick to get them all level is to run a piece of low tack tape across the card to give me a guideline, then line the edge of the stamp against it when stamping – I started with the two outer images and could then also space the middle ones evenly between them. I covered each of them up with the pre-cut masks that come with the set, so I could then focus on the background.

I added a moon mask in the sky area and then cut a curved shape from Clarity’s blank mask material using the plate techinique – that might sound fancy, but it’s basically just using a dinner plate to draw the curve around! I laid the curved mask over the elves and blended ‘chipped sapphire’ & ‘wilted violet’ Distress Oxides into the sky.

I lifted the curved mask off, taking care not to dislodge the ones on the elves, and lightly sponged a little ‘speckled egg’ across a torn piece of copy paper to create the snowdrifts. I could then remove the elves masks and stamp the letters in their boxes, adding the ‘Christmas’ from the gnome billboard stamp set below them. Turning to my Pergaliner pencils, I could then shade in the elves and their letters.

I opted to frame my elf family with a piece of Rainbow River companion paper, cut with one of the ‘dots’ nested doodle frame-it panel dies, and attached the whole piece to a 7×7 card blank.

Love this effect with cutting the curved mask for the sky – they look like they’re sitting on top of a snow drift! And don’t forget that everything I’ve used on this card is currently in Clarity’s Gray Friday sale!