Peace and Snowflakes Ornament

I love this two piece die from Hero Arts.  The circle of snowflakes and the ornament outline are separate dies, so you can cut out an ornament as I have done here or cut an opening ringed by snowflakes into a card front which I will show y'all another time.

I started by dropping green, blue, silver and white Hero Arts glimmer inks onto a craft mat, misted them with water and dragged paper through it all.  I cut a solid ornament shape twice from aqua paper and once from the inked paper and stacked them before layering on the snowflake layer.   I used a Birch Press Designs die to cut the sentiment three times, stacked them and attached them to the shadow piece cut from Silver paper.  All this stacking gives the card dimension.  To help separate the ornament from the background I embossed the background with Stampin' Up's Subtle folder.  I finished the card off with some bitty sparkles in the centers of the snowflakes.

I used the Freshly Made Sketch below and drew on the Jingle Belles Challenge theme of peace on Earth and the ABC Christmas Challenge theme of sparkle and texture.  Here is a shot using a direct flash, so you can see how sparkly it is.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Hanging Ornaments

The theme for the September Christmas at Sweet Stampin' challenge is Christmas decorations and this Freshly Made Sketch seemed perfect for it:

I decided to use a wide Merry Christmas sentiment to create the illusion of the strip across.  I used a die from Birch Press Design and stacked three cut from Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grape cardstock topped with one cut from Gold foil paper slightly offset.  This gave the sentiment lots of dimension.

Now for the ornaments!  I made them using the Simon Say Stamp "Ornate Ornaments" stamp and die set with Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder and colored them with a Violet Zig Clean Color Real Brush marker.  I simply swiped it across the embossing and blotted up any bits of ink that might have been on the embossing.  No need for detailed coloring when you are only using one color!  The original plan was to use gold embroidery thread to "hang" the ornaments and place it on a Gorgeous Grape card base, but as I laid everything out the card seemed pretty boring, so I used substituted black for those elements which gave it more pop.  I wish I had used regular sewing thread because the embroidery thread is somewhat fuzzy.  I had also planned to let the ornaments swing freely, but like so many plans, that needed to be revised as the bottom two ornaments kept switching places and the round one on top of the almond one did not look right.  After I glued them all down I realized I could have left the almond one loose like a tag.  Y'all may see another version of the hanging ornaments in the future.  I had to finish the front off with (what else?) bitty sparkles.  The folks at the Winter Wonderland Challenge blog want to see my favorite embellishment.  If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know that sparkles are my favorite!

Here is the inside using a sentiment from Close to My Heart's "To You and Yours" stamp set which I stamped with Black Versafine ink and embossed with clear detail powder.  No messy black embossing powder for me!

I also plan to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Monochromatic Challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Star of Light in a Shimmery Sky

Once again, I have a shiny card that needed to be photographed with and without the light hitting it at an angle to show the shimmer.  I created it using this Fab Friday sketch:

For the background I used a sponge to lightly dab Wild Wasabi, Tranquil Tide, Night of Navy and Blackberry Bliss on to white cardstock and then swirled diluted Frost White shimmer ink over it.  After trimming it down I lightly sponged some Night of Navy along the edge to ground it and used white craft foam to pop it up from the card base.  I also heavily sponged Blackberry followed by Frost White on a strip of white cardstock.    I used dies from the Star of Light set to cut the background star from shimmer vellum and the filigree star from silver foil paper.  The sentiment is from Jane's Doodles' Holy Night stamp set and is attached with thin foam tape.  I finished the card with a purple sparkle from Hampton Art and some silver sparkles from TPC Studio.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi 

Sparkling Snowflake Shaker Christmas Card

What a difference the angle that the light hits an object can make!  In the first picture the card is upright and shot using a flash aimed straight up flooding the subject with even, indirect light, which is how I usually shoot my cards.  For the second I propped the card back against the background and bounced the flash at the ceiling roughly halfway between the camera and card so the light reflects off the surface allowing y'all to see how shiny it is.  But I am getting ahead of my self...

To me this Freshly Made Sketch screams shaker card:

That would mean a Christmas themed shaker card given the time of year...  The ABC Christmas Challenge is S for sparkle and T for texture which is perfect because I am still playing with Hero Arts Glimmer paints which have a beautiful metallic finish.  They come in dropper bottles and are almost as thick as acrylic paint, so I use techniques involving water.  For the card in my last post I put a few drops on an acrylic block, spritzed it with water, and smooshed it onto watercolor paper.  For this card I put a few drops of Blue, Green, and Sliver on a craft mat and spritzed generously.  I then used a sponge to dab the color onto watercolor paper.  The layers of color combined with the rough paper provided lots of texture and sparkle.  I also used the same Hero Arts Snowflake Cluster die I used on my last card to cut snowflakes, but then cut them apart and placed them around the sentiment panel.  I used Galvanized Metal paper that was available last year from Stampin' Up for the word merry and the background of the shaker pocket.  The sequin mix is Frosty II mix from Kat Scrappyness.  I finished the card off with sparkles at the center of the snowflakes because y'all know I like sparkles.

I am also entering this card in the Simon Say Stamp Monday Challenge to use something clear because you can't make a shaker card without clear acetate.  Plus some of the shaker bits are clear.  

One more Christmas card done!  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time,  Hansi