Sometimes the cutest stamps in a set are the smaller images—and then comes the question: how do you use several of them on one card without everything feeling crowded?
Give each one its own little window!
For this clean and simple Christmas card, I used three adorable characters from the new Frosty Friends Stamps and Dies by Brass & Bliss. The snowman, penguin, and bear each get their own place to shine, while the large Merry Christmas greeting finishes the card without adding a million extra elements.
It’s playful, cheerful, and exactly my kind of Christmas card.
Creating the Three-Window Layout
The Triple Window Front Cover Die creates three openings across the card front. It instantly gives you a layout and takes all the guesswork out of arranging several smaller images.
Rather than trying to create one large scene, I placed a different Frosty Friends character inside each opening. The windows keep the images visually separated, so the finished card feels clean and organized rather than busy.
Each character was stamped, colored with my OLO markers, and cut out with the coordinating dies. By repeating the same small group of colors across all three images, I was able to give each character its own personality while keeping the card cohesive.
And yes, I used traditional red for the Christmas accessories—but I brought in soft blue and blue-gray shades for the penguin. That little bit of cool color adds some wintery contrast while keeping the three images connected.
Coloring the Frosty Friends with OLO Markers
Of course, I reached for my OLO markers to color these three little friends!
Even though the card includes a snowman, penguin, and bear, I kept the color palette small. Repeating the same colors across the images helps them feel like one coordinated group rather than three unrelated characters.
The OLO colors I used were:
- CG1, CG3, and CG5
- R0.5 and R1.5
- B0.2
- O7.1 and O7.3
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If you want to learn more about OLO markers, click here.
The cool grays gave me the shading and contrast I needed, while the two reds kept all the Christmas accessories connected. B0.2 added that soft wintery blue, and the O7 colors brought warmth to the images.
This is one of my favorite ways to color a group of stamped images: choose a limited palette and repeat those colors throughout the card. It makes deciding what to use much easier, speeds up the coloring, and gives the finished project a polished, coordinated look.
Letting the Greeting Go Big
With the characters arranged across the top of the card, the bottom needed something with enough visual weight to balance them.
The Stacked Merry Christmas Die was perfect for the job.
I cut the words from white cardstock and layered them over the red shadow. The greeting is large enough to anchor the card, but because it is a single die-cut element, the design still stays firmly in the clean-and-simple category.
The characters bring the personality. The sentiment brings the impact. There really isn’t a need to keep adding more after that.
An Easy Idea for Small Christmas Stamps
This layout would work with all kinds of smaller stamped images—not only Christmas characters.
Try filling the windows with:
- Snowflakes
- Ornaments
- Small florals
- Birthday images
- Hearts for Valentine’s Day
- Tiny critters from your favorite stamp set
You could use three different images as I did, repeat one favorite image, or even create a little scene that continues across all three windows.
That’s what makes a good cover die so useful: it gives you the structure, but you can keep changing what goes inside it.
Featured Brass & Bliss Products
This card features:
Three Little Characters, One Merry Christmas Card
I love how each Frosty Friends character has its own moment on this card. The Triple Window Front Cover Die keeps the layout clean, the large sentiment fills the remaining space, and those sweet little faces do all the rest.
It looks like more is happening than there actually is—which is always a win when you want to make cute Christmas cards without spending all day on one design.
Which Frosty Friends character is your favorite: the snowman, the penguin, or the bear?
Until next time,
XOXO,
Meg
