I SAW THREE SHIPS - Stamps from issue #207 Simply Cards & Papercraft

 

I saw three ships come sailing in

On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

I saw three ships come sailing in

On Christmas Day in the morning

And what was in those ships all three

On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day?

And what was in those ships all three

On Christmas Day in the morning?

The Virgin Mary and Christ were there

On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

The Virgin Mary and Christ were there

On Christmas Day in the morning

Pray, wither sailed those ships all three

On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

Pray, wither sailed those ships all three

On Christmas Day in the morning?

O they sailed into Bethlehem

On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

O they sailed into Bethlehem

On Christmas Day in the morning

And all the bells on earth shall ring

On Christmas Day, on Christmas…

I received my copy of Simply Cards & Papercraft issue #207 magazine in the post. It arrived from the UK to Spain within a week, after ordering it from Craftstash.co.uk

The main reason I ordered it was because I had been wanting a sailing ship stamp, just like the one which came in the freebie set.

As a bonus, there are several fabulous nautical and beach type stamp images included. Shown in the (photo below) .... 

But my plan was to make a Christmas card based on the "I Saw Three Ships" song. 

And I decided it would be good to use a pop up box base card. 

These are the paper pads that I had in, which had papers I thought would be suitable. The small pad had a wintery looking wavy sea pattern and the larger pad had a red patterned paper, perfect for bringing in a more traditional Christmassy colour ......... (photo below). 

First I made the pop up box card base and then I stamped the images onto plain white card and coloured them in using my Faber Castell Polychromos colouring pencils. 

I used a grey spotty paper (snowy grey morning sky) from the small pad to attach to the back flap of the box card, using double sided tape. 

The lighthouse was fussy cut and glued to the back flap..... (see photo below). 

I cut the box strips and decorated them with the grey wintery, sea wave, patterned paper from the small pad. As you can see in the photo below, I also cut a wavy pattern along the top section of each strip. 

The wavy sea strips were then glued into the box, ready to take the stamped ships which would be attached to them. I kept checking to make sure the box would still fold flat. 

I also used a yellow colouring pencil to suggest light radiating from the lighthouse. As you can see in the photo below.... 

Now I glued the ships into place. I used a hot glue gun and strips of acetate to attach them to the wavy strips in the centre of the box. Again, continually checking to make sure that the box folded flat and the ships would stay within the confines of an A5 size envelope. 

I also added some fussy cut seagulls from the stamp set. 

The other papers and some stamped music were also glued to the flaps and sides of the box. I stamped the music in red with a wooden block stamp. 

The card's sentiment word blocks were stamped with Dovecraft wooden block alphabet stamps, which I had bought from the Range during a visit to the UK. 

A sparkly piece of ribbon and a bow were also attached, to give a Christmassy look......

I had originally coloured the ships sails in a yellow colour and then decided to add more red, which I preferred. To keep the card looking Christmassy. 

The photo below gives an example of how the card flattens down, so that it will fit into a standard A5 size envelope. I does flatten further than shown in the photo, but I didn't want to hold the flaps down and have my hand in the way. 

The final photo just shows the card when seen slightly from above and looking down onto it.... 

I am really very happy with how this card turned out. 

The ship stamp is fabulous, I think the style of sailing ship seems to suit the song perfectly.