Holiday Preview Day 3: Holly Golightly

When I’m working on holiday gift tags, or writing thank you notes, or even making the little tags that go on our stamp set orders, my favorite decorative flourish is a hand-drawn sprig of holly. To me, it’s the quintessential Christmas plant.

I draw the outline of my leaf with its pointy little edges, plus three berries. My hand knows the way, the pen makes a “swoop, swoop, swoop” motion, and then three lil’ circles. I have drawn so many of them through the years, I could probably draw holly and berries with my eyes closed.

OK, maybe not ... I just tried doing it with my eyes closed on a scrap of paper and I went off the paper and drew on my desk.

My silly experiments notwithstanding ... who doesn’t love Holly at Christmas time? It’s an expressive plant (botanical name is Ilex), if you study the glossy, twisting and twirling leaves, they’re mesmerizing and unique. The contortion of each prickly leaf — some of them appear to be recoiling or trying to roll themselves up, others are more open and flat, with their spiny points at the ready to defend the plant from herbivores and parasites. When you have a branch filled with healthy, thick green leaves studded with adorable red berries (did you know that only female Holly trees have berries, and they have to be pollinated by nearby male Holly tree in order to bear fruit?), they are just the simplest, most perfect way to kick off Christmas decorating.

Working on sketches for our Holiday collection, I thought through combinations of Holly and Mistletoe, Holly and Boxwood, Holly and Holly...

Yes, such a simple way to infuse Christmas charm — into decorating and into cards and tags. You really only need two colors to get things rolling when you use Holly. I know it seems odd coming from me, the queen of over-doing it in the art department, but the set we’re sharing today is bit simpler than most. It is one that beginners and advanced stampers and colorists alike will want to have on hand for the Holidays. Introducing Holly Golightly!

With images ranging from a botanical study, to a cute holiday tag, to a gentle country vignette, this set is one that won’t take long to color, and will still give you wonderful results! Holly Golightly (named after that most famous, curiously cool Truman Capote character) features lots of sentiments that can either fit inside the tag, or be used on their own. I already know that this is a set I’ll be reaching for this year! Quick-n-easy!

Would you like to see what the Bloomies have been up to with this new clear stamp set (which will be available in the shop on October 21)? Let’s go have a look!

Allison Cope

Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber

Kathy Jones

Stacy Morgan

And if you’ve missed the last few days of Happiest Holiday 2016 previews, be sure to scroll down a bit on the blog and catch up on some very inspiring cards made by our incredible designers. You are sure to be delighted!

See you back tomorrow... we’re rolling all the way to Friday with this good stuff! Tomorrow’s set is filled with so much fun, it’s almost hard not to share it today!!!