CASS | Christmas Night

Christmas is coming ever closer. I know a lot of people don’t like to think about Christmas until later in the year. I’m like that too, for the most part. But when it comes to card making it’s a good idea to get a start early. I make my Christmas cards all year around, and our challenge at Christmas at Sweet Stampin’ is a great way to keep motivated to do that! I decided to try something a bit different for this card, and had fun getting messy and playing with it.

I started by creating my background using Black Brusho and water mixed with Perfect Pearls. Actually I had my husband help me make it – I thought he’d enjoy seeing how they work, and he needed cheering up. I always seem to get messy with Brushos, but it’s fun! I made a similar background recently and flicked it with watered down white acrylic paint to make stars, but I decided not to do that on this one. I dried it with my heat gun then moved on to my stamping.

I wanted a silhouette look for the rest of my card. For the city skyline I used So Suzy Stamp’s City Scape stamp and first stamped it across the bottom of my card with white ink. I then shifted the stamp slightly and repeated the stamping using embossing ink before heat embossing with black. This gave a very slight glow to the edge of my buildings, which I felt helped them stand out better.

I then took the Sleigh Ride Silhouette stamp from Repeat Impressions and added it towards the top of my card to have the impression of flying overhead. I felt the image was too little to manage the double stamping, so instead I just stamped and heat embossed in black, then sponged a little of the white ink around it to give a slight glow behind it.

The last bit of stamping was my sentiment which is from Happy Little Stampers’ Everyday Sentiments. I again heat embossed in black as I wanted to keep the look of the card consistent. I did consider white or silver to have it stand out more, but I felt that might overpower the card.

My panel was a bit warped from all the water and heat, so I made sure to cover the back well with double-sided tape before adhering it to my card base. Having a good coverage of tape helps to ensure that even a very warped piece sticks down nicely.

I had a lot of fun making this card and I’m very happy with the result. It’s definitely different from my other Christmas cards, and I think it works nicely as a masculine Christmas card. I really love the colour variation in the Brusho, and the shimmer that the Perfect Pearls adds. I probably should try using just plain water though – I wonder if the Pearls are taking some of the vibrancy from the colours. If I was to change one thing about this card it would be the sentiment –  think I should have stamped Christmas closer to the y of Merry. I feel it would perhaps have given a better flow to the card given the positioning of the sleigh in comparison to the sentiment.

Love,

Lady Joyful

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Challenges included:

Christmas At Sweet Stampin’ – Anything Christmas

Craftyhazelnut’s Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas

Creative Confetti – Dark Backdrop

HLS Christmas Challenge – Anything Goes

HLS Mixed Media Challenge – Messy

HLS Watercolour Challenge – Anything Goes

Merry Little Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas

Paru’s Card Making Challenges – Anything Goes

Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – Celebrating Stamping

Stamping Sensations – Something Beginning with B (Brusho!)

STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch Challenge – Anything Stamping

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Check out what the rest of the DT made:

Abi

Charlotte (that’s me!)

Chris

Judy

Marsha

Susan

Tracey

Wendy