December Daily® 2024 | Special Guest Denine Zielinski

Hi everyone! This is Denine, and I am so excited to be here today on the blog stamping with you. One of the first stamp sets from this December Daily release that called my name was the Holiday Trees 6x8 Set. I love the three different stamps for the trees as well as the itty-bitty ornaments and lights!

I had absolutely no plan at all when I started stamping, so I just got after it. I picked a whole bunch of different green inks from my stash and decided to just play around. I generally use two different types of white paper for scrapbooking. One is a cardstock, and the other is a coverstock. The coverstock is significantly thicker, and I most often use it for the bases of my pages. I did a test stamp on each of them, and I ended up going with the coverstock for this post. I liked how it felt as well as how the images stamped.

VIDEO OVERVIEW

I will begin with a video of my entire process, which I feel has three parts. Here are the times of each part in case you want to just view a certain segment of my process.

1. Stamping – 0:00 – 11:29

2. Embellishing – 11:30 – 18:23

3. Creating a page – 11:25 – 22:22

As you saw in the video, I basically just played around with stamps + inks + embellishments. Some trees turned out better than others, and I was totally okay with that. I was having fun, and I did stamp an excess amount of trees for that purpose.

Here are a few of the trees that I stamped along with a little details about what inks and/or embellishments I used.

In the video you saw that I did stamp a tree with the cute little lights, but I cut it up and didn’t like how it looked. I will be re-stamping one of those. It was so fun + easy! I stamped the outlines of the lights first, and it was simple to line the insides up looking at the stamped outline through the acrylic block. Of course, if you would rather not stamp the insides, you can use marker, colored pencil, or even watercolors to color the bulbs.

I like some of the color combinations better than others, and I like some of the embellishments better than others.

As usual, for me, my stamped images turned out better after stamping the first impression. Here’s a tip to get your stamped images to look better when you use stamps for the first time. Use Versamark Ink on your new stamp. Just ink it up and make your first impression on scrap paper. Then, use stamp cleaner on the stamp and dry it off. It really works. Unfortunately, this is something that I often forget to do because I am just excited to get going. It really does make a difference, though.

Another thing that I always seem to forget to do is use my Anti-Static Pouch on my paper prior to stamping + heat embossing. It’s always right on my desk, but again, I’m in a hurry. I did remember to use it this time (like once or twice), and I can definitely see the difference between when I used it and didn’t use it. So, now that I had a whole bunch of trees, what to do? I wanted to make something that I was going to add to my album, so I decided to make my Reason Why page here with you guys. Here is the finished page where I added five of my trees across the page. For the background paper, I modified the digital version of the 10x8 December Pattern Paper from the Main Kit. I tried the trees on some of the physical papers from the kit, and I just felt like the bold colors took the viewers eyes away from the trees. The joy of hybrid scrapbooking!

To embellish my stamped images and my page, I added a few things from the Main Kit including a red wooden star, a gold glitter star, and a die cut phrase strip. Some people may frown upon using the two different reds (the die cut + the star) on the same spread, but I am slowly becoming more open + flexible when it comes to that stuff. We all have our own ways, right? You do you…always! I also still have a bunch of the stars from last year’s release, so I ended up adding two of those, as well.

Below is how my page looks when you swing the tree over to reveal my reason why. I created a custom shape text box to have my words in the general shape of the tree. I have included it here in case anyone is interested. I used Photoshop to create it, but it can totally be opened and used with Photoshop Elements.

I printed my journaling out on white cardstock, laid one of my stamped trees on top of it, and outlined it with a pencil. Then, I fussy cut it out. If you want the tree with the journaling to be totally hidden, cut inside of the pencil line. Here is a close up of my reason why.

You can also see from my images + video that I cut some of the trees that I stamped into three parts – top, middle, and bottom. I then pieced different parts of different trees back together for a little bit of an eclectic look. I experimented with sewing on my machine for that. It was fun!

These trees are so simple + versatile.

• You can add them to a page similar to how I did and have photos underneath or photos + journaling underneath.

• You can add one in the center of a page with a simple die cut or chipboard phrase underneath.

• You can add them to the front of a pocket.

• You can back each tree with white cardstock + add your journaling to the back of each tree + then put them all into one pocket.

• You can totally fill an entire page with them (some would be hanging off the edge which would be so fun).

• You can fill a page with the trees like I said in the above bullet point + then also cut photos in the shape of the trees to add amongst the trees.

• You can stamp them in the colors of the Main Kit for some super colorful fun!

I am sure there are many more ways to add them into your album. Those are the ones just off the top of my head.

Thank you so much for joining me here on the blog for some December Daily tree stamping. I hope you had as much fun as I did! I will be here again this month with more stamping. Yay! If you have any questions or would like to see me play with a certain stamp set, please feel free to comment below. You can also see more of my work onInstagram @denine2 and YouTube @Denine2. Happy Storytelling + Happy December Daily! See you all soon!

FIND THE TREE PSD FILE HERE

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Friendly reminder that we are following the same process as last year for securing your stamp orders. In order to meet the high demand for stamps this year, we are asking you to add the stamp sets you would like to receive in your box by 9/9 at 11:59pm ET to guarantee your order for shipping with your box in early October. We will be ordering a limited amount of each design in addition to stamps sets secured by customers that will be available after 9/9. If you do not secure the stamps you would like by 9/9 at 11:59pm we cannot guarantee we will have enough quantity to fulfill demand and they may sell out. Find them here.