Reindeer Twinchie | CAS Card

I don’t think I’ve ever made an inchie card before. A quick search of my blog doesn’t bring up any results for the word. As much as I enjoy clean and simple designs, the amount of white space required for a card that only has a square inch of decoration is a bit intimidating! This card is not an inchie, but a twinchie, which means the design is limited to two inches of space. And considering how little space it takes up, it took quite a lot of time for me to make this just because I put so much into the colouring!

After seeing the twinchie card that my crafty friend Maaike shared on her YouTube channel I was inspired to create with one of the freebies from Tiddly Inks. I use Word for my digi stamps, so I opened a document with a card sized page, sized the digi stamp to just shy of 2″ (because I wanted to be sure I wouldn’t go over the allowance if the sizing was off) and positioned it how I wanted it, before printing the image directly onto my card base.

Lights – CR11, OR3, CT4, AG3, BT7

Glow/highlights – AP3, BO1, CT1, LG1, BT1

Deer – EB7, EB4, EB1

Antlers – GB2

Collar – TN8, CR11

Bells – GB7, CT4

Background – IG10, IG8, IG6, IG2

I used my Spectrum Noir Illustrator markers to colour in the image. I first went through adding colour to the lights. As the area is so small I kept it to one colour per light, rather than shading with more than one. I also worked in rainbow order, trying to follow the line of the wires that link the lights to make sure I had them in the right arrangement, though I think it doesn’t matter if it isn’t exact, so long as there as reasonable spacing between the colours.

Next I took a lighter shade of each of the colours I had used for the lights. I used the lighter shades to add a glow around the appropriate light, then also added the lighter shade along the areas of the deer, particularly the antlers, where that colour light would be hitting, to give the impression that the deer and antlers are being lit up by the Christmas lights. I then also added GB2 to the antlers as there base colour. Here again I chose not to add a second shade, as I felt that the GB2 is the shadow on the antlers, with the glow colours making the highlights.

Next I coloured the deer, using Earth Browns. I started with the darkest colour, laying in the shadow areas, and working out towards the lightest areas. The EB1, which is my lightest shade, did cover up the glow I’d put on the deer’s body, but I later went back to add the glow in. I also used the GB2 again to blend with the EB1 in the area that the front antler meets the reindeer’s body.

For the collar I decided I wanted to go with a traditional Christmas red. I kept it very simple with just two shades – a reddish brown for the shadow areas, and my red for the rest. The bells are also just two shades, a golden brown and a yellow, plus I later added some of the glow colours in areas that seemed appropriate.

At this point the image was technically finished. My original plan had been to put some shading to make the circle look inset, but after seeing the image coloured up I decided it really needed a dark background to emphasise the glow of the lights. I was a little bit wary adding it in, so I started light by filling in the circle with my lightest grey, IG2. As I bought the colour up close to the glow areas I then went back over with the glow colour. I repeated with my next darkest grey, not going quite as close to the glow with that. I did consider stopping after the third shade, but then decided to go all in and use my darkest (IG10) to really deepen the background. With each of the layers I stopped further from the lights, blending closer in steps with the lighter shades of grey, and going back over at the end with the glow colours to enhance them.

Once I was finally finished with the colouring I bought in my Sakura Gelly Roll Glitter Gel Pen and used that to add stars across the dark background. I then grabbed my white gel pen and added shine onto the lights, bells and antlers. I also used the white gel pen to touch up any areas that my greys had gone beyond the outer edge of the circle.

The final touch was to add a sentiment. I needed something that would fit inside the circle, so I searched “Christmas” in the Color My Life app to see all the christmas sentiments I had available and check what might be small enough. I spotted one in a now retired set called Handmade Christmas from Simon Says Stamp that seemed promising. When I dug the stamp set out I could confirm that it would fit, though I had to partially stamp to stack the sentiment rather than stamping it in a line as it comes. This allowed me to fit it in the gap beside the deer. I considered heat embossing but eventually settled on just stamping with white pigment ink.

When I showed my husband this card he was surprised to learn that it was finished. Like I said at the start, it is definitely on the extra clean end of clean and simple! I do really like how it turned out though. The glow effect really adds something special to an otherwise very simple design. What do you think? Is it too much white space?

Love,

Charlotte E (Lady Joyful) Email thejoyfulsoulcreates@gmail.com

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Challenges:

AAA Cards – Twinchie and Optional: Christmas in July

Crafty Gals Corner – Christmas in July

Craftyhazelnut’s Christmas Challenge – Christmas in July

Less Is More – Christmas in July

The House That Stamps Built – Christmas in July