When I designed this card during my personal “24 cards in 24 hours” challenge I had a feeling that the gnomes’ days would be numbered. It’s a great stamp set but typical of those that are only available for a single catalogue. Of course I hoped I was wrong but sadly not., the Kindest Gnomes Stamp Set and Storybook Gnomes paper are both on the retiring list. What isn’t there though is the Gnomes Dies. That’s because there’s a new stamp set with coordinating spring/summer themed gnomes coming very soon.

HANDCOLOURED GNOMES

But let’s go back to today’s project which began when I chose the image of the gnome with braids. Using Tuxedo black ink I stamped her 3 times. First peeking in at the bottom left corner on the front of a Very Vanilla Medium Envelope. Then I stamped her peeking in at the bottom right corner of a 4″ x 5-1/4″ piece of Very Vanilla Card. Then on a separate scrap of Very Vanilla Card I stamped the whole image.

To colour the three gnomes I decided to use Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2. In the end I only needed 5 of the pencils. For the hat I used Cherry Cobbler, while the shirt was Gorgeous Grape. Then I coloured the hair with Crushed Curry and added some Cajun Craze. Finally for her hands and face I used Flirty Flamingo.

Once all the colouring was done I went over each section with a Blender Pen to ‘activate’ the pigment. After completing one colour I wiped the nib of the Blender Pen onto scrap paper to clean it before moving on to the next colour.

With all three images coloured and blended I cut out the complete gnome using Paper Snips. Then I cut up around the hands so that they could hold the sentiment later.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Going back to the Kindest Gnomes Stamp Set I chose the “Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year” sentiment. After stamping it onto some Very Vanilla Card I went looking for a die to cut it out but nothing appealed to me. Then I remembered the Tailor Made Tags Dies and chose the #2 fancy topped die from the set (counting from the smallest up).

You’ll notice though that the finished sentiment doesn’t look like a tag and that’s an easy effect to achieve. For an explanation of how to customise die-cut pieces using the Tailor Made Tags Dies see my earlier YouTube video.

Once I’d cut out my sentiment all that was left for me to do was put all the pieces together.

I began by using my Paper Trimmer to cut and score some Night of Navy Card for the card base. Then I folded the card along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. with that done I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to attach the 4″ x 5-1/4″ stamped layer on the inside.

Next I tucked the die-cut sentiment up under the gnome’s hands and secured the two pieces together with more liquid glue. Finally I added the assembled piece to the card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals and my project was complete.

I love how this turned out and especially how the gnome holds the sentiment. This idea could be used with sentiments for all sorts of occasions don’t you think?

PRODUCT LIST

BUNDLE BONUS – I bought the Kindest Gnomes Stamp Set in a bundle with the coordinating Gnomes Dies (not used today). Buying coordinating products using a ‘bundle’ item number gives a 10% saving off the cost of buying them separately. I’ve included links to both options below in case you want to explore these for yourself.

PRODUCT AVAILABILITY – All retiring products will only be available while stocks last. Although the Last Chance promotion doesn’t offically start until December 1st I’ve noticed a vew items are already out of stock and no further supplies are expected. For this reason if there’s anything you still want from the July to December Mini Catalogue I recommend you order them now while you still can.

While I mentioned that the Gnomes Dies are being carried over into 2023, they will not appear in the new Mini Catalogue but can be found in the online store. The dies are then due to retire on 1st May 2023 or when existing supplies are exhausted.