Send a holiday message to someone special!

SUPPLIES NEEDED: American Traditional stencils: Christmas Tree BL-04 Merry Christmas BL-126 Or cut your own using the illustration at right. Other Supplies: Notecard, 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Light table or other light source Embossing stylus (or crochet hook, knitting needle, etc.) 3/16" stencil brushes Acrylics, oil sticks, or ink: green, yellow, red Glitter and glue (optional) Decorative scissors

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Attach Merry Christmas stencil to the top of the front of the card with masking tape (always reduce tackiness by sticking to clothing a few times). Tape off everything but the words "Merry" and "Christmas". Stencil "Merry" with green. Carefully remove stencil and reposition so that "Christmas" appears just below "Merry", and stencil as before.

2. Center the Christmas Tree stencil below the Merry Christmas design, attach to card and stencil with green and shade with yellow and red. Stencil tree stand with yellow and shade with red. Trunk is stenciled with red and green blended together to make brown. We taped off the holly on the stencil, you might choose to stencil the holly too!

3. Stencil tiny snowflakes from the Merry Christmas stencil randomly over the front of the card in yellow

4. Carefully trim the long edge of the front of the card with decorative scissors. Gently brush green along the cut edge.

OTHER IDEAS:

You may want to emboss the designs to add extra dimension to your card. To emboss, place stencil on front of paper, secure with small pieces of masking tape. Turn paper over, place on light source and rub design with your finger (this will help the embossing stylus to move more easily). Trace design with the embossing stylus. Turn paper over and stencil in your color, if desired. Carefully remove stencil.

Glitter adds sparkle to snowflakes, tree and decorative edge. Just add a small amount of glue where you want the glitter, sprinkle on glitter and gently tap off the excess.