Sometimes a project just needs sparkle! Well that’s what I think anyway.
This started as a card using up bits of patterned paper and then I grabbed speciality scraps and added the handmade paper strip…. Which is lovely but I decided what the project really needed was sparkle…
So I die cut the stars from the Tidings and Trimmings set to add along with the sequins.
The sentiment is a mix of the Tim Holtz die cuts (I had that on the desk so it’s the one that got used) and the Peace and Joy stamps!
Fun and love the mix of the sparkly with the natural!
I had this old digital image coloured in and ready to go. I also had a piece of mixed media background left from a project from a few years ago… so I put them together!
I die cut a wonky circle and stamped on it with some random magazine sentiments to create the pattern and then added that to the blue background.
I then added the stocking with a little bit of twine off the top and gave it a mat of white before adding it to the little grey notecard.
The mixed media has lots of shine and texture so that didn’t need anything… but I added wink of Stella to the stocking toe, heel and top.
So I decided to make a couple of flat cards … not quite one layer as I did stamp panels but then I adhered them flat to the card blank rather than raising up and adding dimension.
I also added some embossing for the sentiment and some stickles dots for embellishment rather than gems and sequins … so for me this is a very flat set of cards!
But their shape make them interesting!
Plus the multiple stamping and inking and the way the sentiment panel is protected from the inking! Well that’s my thought anyway!
I used two different stamp sets for the images … Forever Fern and Christmas Season.
Clearly the Forever Fern isn’t a Christmas themed stamp set but I think it works fine like this to create a fun background.
I had masked off the sentiment area and then used the gold embossing to add the sentiment.
I lightly inked the background and because the stamping wasn’t 100% dry it did move it a little but I think that’s ok. I inked the edge too to add more definition to the panel edge.
This one has more obvious Christmas themed images with the holly leaves, pine cones and pine sprigs and this one I added brown into the inking too to blend in the cones.
Used champagne stickles for the bling and gold embossing to just add that bit of shine and sparkle!
I also finished slightly different with the Christmas season panel going top to bottom whereas the forever Fern was shorter than the card blank. Like how that looked slightly less than the top to bottom of the other one so will remember that for future projects.
Yesterday I shared the masterboard I made and three cards I made from it. Today I have the final piece and what I ended up doing with it.
I turned it into a very large card which I sent to my auntie and uncle for this year.
I teamed the panel of the masterboard with a piece of paper I had gone to town on with stamping using the Christmas Season stamps and some random text/script stamps and of course lots of splatters. I had also added some vintage photo ink to it too which meant it felt in keeping with the masterboard panel.
I added these together and onto a piece of cream cardstock. I added some brads to also keep them together.
Then I decided to add one of the spellbinders stitched trees as the main focal point. This time it was a green tree that I inked a lot with darker inks to make it in keeping with the colours already used. Then I used the ivory thread to add the decoration.
I kept the sentiment very simple with the cream panel that I inked with green and brown lightly to just distress it and help it look less bright against the backgrounds.
Love how this came together to create a big card. I also added a strip of the stamped paper on the inside of the card as it was leftover from the original piece.
I really enjoyed the masterboard I made using collaged patterned paper bits and ink and stencilling and stamping … so I made another one!
This was it mid way through. Again used dsp but this time a mix of sets with browns and greens. Added distress ink on top and then stamped a few words. Next I added the stencilled snowflakes and then started with splatter in both the white and then a gold shimmer watercolour and a green shimmer watercolour. Perfect to tie in the different colours in the background.
Next I took three distress oxides and three snowflake stamps and added those before chopping apart the panels into card topper sizes. I then sewed around the edge of the toppers with wonky lines but didn’t do the whole sewing over the top type thing this time.
I decided to separate one of the toppers out as I wanted to do something different with that which I will share on another day. The other three I decided to keep similar as landscape cards.
I added some white die cut snowflakes which I positioned so they would poke out of the edge of the focal image I had planned.
The focal image I white embossed onto Kraft cardstock and then used the shimmer watercolours to add the colour. I should have stamped with a pale colour then painted and then embossed to make this easier but never mind … it still worked just meant I kept having to wipe off the embossed line art.
Once they were dry I then fussy cut them out and glued them flat to the card.
Next I embossed the sentiment onto the Kraft and then added a white mount to each of the strips.
Obviously these are all very similar but clearly unique as the backgrounds are randomly put together and the image slightly differently placed.
Love how they look and it was great fun putting together another masterboard.
I’ve still got that one piece leftover … but that I used differently and so look out for that on the blog tomorrow.
Can’t promise I won’t do another one of these but this is like yesterdays before you get bored of the same technique … a background that I embossed the debossed part using the embossing folder upside down!
This time the background I used a scrap of the sprayed leftover paper from my daughters photography project way back at the start of the year and inked it up with blending brushes. I then also added some stencilling. Next I embossed it upside down with versamark on the raised elements so this pushes the versamark into the indentations so that it where the embossing powder gets caught.
This time I used the white sparkly embossing powder so it is sparkly but because the embossing is quite fine it isn’t over the top! Next I used my scoreboard to add a frame … to be honest it is quite subtle so unlikely you will see it well in the pictures.
I then used a scrap of Kraft, a die cut I was gifted and a Tim Holtz sticker to finish off and the card blank is Pacific Point so a nice bright blue colour.
Rare for me but no gems or extra embellishments … so quite a flat card but that background looks like so much effort went into it but really it took just a couple of mins!
The bad part about this technique is being careful not to tip over the embossing powder pot as it goes everywhere when you do … how do I know that? Well you can probably imagine!
I know I’ve shared Jennifer McGuire’s embossing video a few times now but really this technique really steps up a background!
I used it here on a spray ink background but then blended inks over the top to completely change it up. I used a blue embossing powder and an intricate embossing folder for this one and it turned it into a lovely rich looking background like old fashioned wallpaper.
In this picture you can see some of the shine and texture better.
Decided to use it with this panel of stamped baubles and Kraft for a funky look. I love this tonic sentiment die too for really finishing a project off well.
I also added tiny pearls to the centre of the baubles to make them special.
So a few weeks ago I had lots of fun watching the Tim Holtz Holiday Hoopla videos on YouTube and it got me feeling vintage and mixed media! This is what I then created whilst watching the video!
I ended up with four cards but cut from the one masterboard I made. Here are the progress shots …
I started by taking pieces of the Tidings and Trimmings papers and cutting them into random rectangles and shapes and just gluing them down with a little bit of glue stick … I wasn’t concerned about gluing them flat as I knew I wanted to sew over them.
I then did lots and lots of sewing. Sometimes I followed the shapes of the paper and sometimes just sewed straight across sections. I didn’t really think much about choice of design but occasionally changed the setting to zig zag rather than straight stitching.
Next I added three different colours of distress ink (all browns) by swiping the ink pads across the masterboard so it was random but caught all the texture in particular. I then used a blending brush to wipe across it all to soften some of the lines.
I then took a stencil and using white gesso added the stencilling randomly all over the page. This unified the page giving it some interest but consistency.
Next up I added word stamping using archival ink to add something more suited to Christmas cards.
Next I took three different acrylic paints and heavily splattered all over the whole sheet. One of these was a gold shimmer paint so it is super sparkly when you see it in the light…
I then chopped the panel into four pieces and trimmed them down slightly so they were 14.4cm x 10cm so they would fit on a standard card blank with a border.
I then used both the Vintage photo distress ink and some Early Espresso to ink the edge to frame each panel. I decided at this point that two would work well as portrait cards and two as landscape.
Next I took the same Kraft cardstock and die cut the spellbinders stitched die tree from the October kit and die cut that four times (I actually did it six times in total but two just were to mount one of these onto so not pictured)… and then added ink to them using both the vintage photo and early espresso to give them some depth and then splattered the shimmer gold paint on them too … in my defence I have been watching a lot of Prairie Paper and Ink too and splatter is very present for her cards too!
Then I took three of the trees and did sewing! So fun to do this whilst still watching Tim doing his thing on YouTube and inspiring me with all his amazing ideas!
I did sewing on three and the final tree I left it without the sewing and stacked it three times to make it a chunky embellishment. I did add thread though just as a nest beneath the tree.
I chose to add some white panels to three cards … two I pierced manually with the piercing tool and template and the other is a die cut shape.
Then I stamped cut and layered the sentiments to finish off.
Clearly these are very different Christmas cards and I know the people who will appreciate them most are my more crafty friends who will definitely love the artsy mixed media nature of the cards … I absolutely loved the couple of hours I spent making these and think I need to do more things like this routinely as it gets me out of the comfort zone especially when dealing with patterned paper!
Also those trees are just amazing! And such fun to stitch! And I love all the sparkle!
I made the background for this card months ago as part of Christmas in July but never got round to finishing it at the time. But finally I got round to finishing it.
So the background was made using distress stains and the Snow Crystal embossed for an embossed resist background. Then I added more distress stain as I wasn’t keen on the dry piece and then I added even more with some stencilling and white pigment ink. Then I liked the background a whole lot more!
I trimmed down the background. Mounted it onto Kraft and rounded the corners on the bottom.
I found some paper ribbon and wrapped that round the top and added the bow.
The focal point then was the fabulous stag which is a very old magazine stamp that I adore.
I embossed him in gold and fussy cut him out.
I did raise him up on some scraps of the same cardstock to give him dimension and then added the white embossed sentiment onto Kraft.
Love how this came out. I did end up making an odd shaped card which is 5×6 but it fits ok in the 5×7 envelope.
Inkyfingeredcat 