This parchment craft project is primarily meant to be one for Christmas, hence the red nose on the deer. But if you take that away and colour the ground green and the sky a pale blue then it’s a good little card to give someone in the autumn when the deer are rutting as well.
To complete this project you will need:
- Template downloaded and printed onto white paper
- 14x14cm parchment craft vellum
- 11x4cm parchment craft vellum.
- Black fine liner
- white pencil
- Embossing tools: fine stylus, extra small, small and large ball tools.
- Double sided tape.
- Fine fancy silver border peel offs
- Felt tips: Dark green, brown and red.
- Dorso: Dark purple.
- Scissors
- 20x30cm textured black card – Cut from 12×12 scrap booking card.
- 25cm blue ribbon.
Tracing: Trace the stag template into the centre of the larger piece of parchment vellum with a white pencil. Use the black fine liner to trace the stags’ eyes.
Embossing: All embossing is completed on the back of the vellum.
Stag: Use the fine stylus to go over all of the lines of the stag, and to emboss the little pupils.
Most of the stags’ fur is embossed using the fine stylus to create tiny fine flicks that flow in the direction of the fur, running over the back and down the legs. All of the face fur emanates from the nose. Be careful with the fine stylus as it easy punctures the delicate parchment craft vellum.
Keep the fur even over the whole of the body but don’t add any fur to the inner ear.
Use the small ball tool to emboss the fur on the chest, making this slightly longer and thicker than the rest of the body.
Use the large ball t
ool to emboss the belly so that it appears soft.
Use the extra small ball tool to emboss the tips of the antlers to keep these nice and sharp. Fill in the rest of the antler as strongly white as possible without damaging the parchment, with the small ball tool. Leave a slight gap in the embossing just above the ears.
When you get to the base of the legs let the embossing fade before you reach the snow.
Conifer Trees: All of the trees are embossed using only the small ball tool. Place the tool on the base of one of the branches and flick upward towards the top of the tree. Let these flicks curve a little towards the trunk, this will change depending on which side of the tree you are on. This will help the trees to look a little more 3D. Don’t let the flicks go as high as the next set of branches.
Don’t do any embossing at snow level – leave a gap. Where you can see the top of a tree do a couple of flicks coming down towards the branches so that there appears to be frost on the treetop.
Bare Tree: The bare tree is embossed using the small ball tool by running it along the branches to make frosty lines. Add a few more lines on the side of the tree that is closest to the stag as this will help to frame him.Try to make the lines very slightly wavy. If they are too straight the tree may look unnatural.
Stars: Go over each of the stars with the extra small ball tool making them as white as possible. Emboss 4 or 5 of the stars so that they are a bit bigger than the others. Where the star is a little cross add a couple of faint extra lines coming from the centre.
Snow: Emboss the top edge of each of the snow mounds with the small ball tool then the rest with the large tool. Don’t fade this but keep the embossing even, leaving a slight gap just above the next mound. Not fading this part keeps the snow looking nice and solid and in the foreground.
Border: Use the large parchment craft ball tool to strongly emboss all of the border.
Colouring: On the back of the parchment use the dorso to colour the sky deep purple, being careful to not go over the lines into the border. Use the felt tips to colour the conifers dark green and the bare tree brown. Leave the snow blank.
On the front of the parchment use a fine red felt tip to colour the stag’s nose.
Writing: Trace the writing in to the centre of the smaller piece of parchment craft vellum. Emboss this using the extra small ball tool.
Add a few little dots and crosses to represent stars.
Finishing: Edge both the writing and the picture with silver border peel offs. On the picture go around the image itself – not the wavy border. Cut out the picture using scissors. Fold the black card in half and arrange the components of the card as shown on the image at the top of the page and stick down using the double sided tape hidden behind the borders.
Use black card on the inside of the front page to hide the ends of the ribbon.
