Christmas Double Day

Hi crafters!  Welcome to another double day Christmas post.    This first card is a personal favourite of mine, I have to confess.  I just love the simplicity of this design, remember I told you that it is a "go to" layout for me.  It always help jump start my creative juices.   I started with the white background and stamped snowflakes all over it using a clear perfect medium pad.  I heat embossed them with white powder for a tone on tone look (which can be seen in the close ups below).    I matted it with silver card then went to work on my focal element.  I used the snowflake background and stamped it on white card using a clear perfect medium pad.  I love this background as it has been drawn in negative.  The actual space around the snowflakes is what you are stamping, leaving the snowflakes to show up in whatever colour card you pick.  I heat embossed it with Silver Shine embossing powder.  I covered the entire piece with a sticky self adhesive sheet, then peeled the backing paper off and covered it with Iced Snow.  I trimmed it to size and backed it with a thin white mat.  I mounted it with foam atop my white background.  I stamped the sentiment and cut it into a strip and backed it with a matching silver mat.  I attached it across the card and added a silver messy bow, tulle and a crystal sparkler to complete my focal element.  I finished the card with double white pierced mat layers for a simple but elegant Christmas card.  Finished dimensions are 7" x 8 1/4" in size.

For card number 2, I have done some baubles in stained glass style.  I have to admit that I only had a few Christmas colours of glitter on hand when I made these so I decided on just red and white.  You could easily make them more interesting with the addition of another colour to the mix.  I stamped the baubles on acetate using a black archival ink pad. Acetate is slippery and not the easiest thing to stamp on, but if you use an anti- static pad over it before stamping, it does help.    I let it dry overnight (as my acetate was not heat resistant so I couldn't emboss them!)  From the back side of the acetate, again I used an anti-static pad over the area then I used Cosmic Shimmer dries clear glue to fill in the areas that I wanted to use the red polished silk glitter.  I sprinkled it on then tapped off the excess.  I did the same with the white glitter areas then set them aside to dry overnight.  Once dry, I cut them out by hand (I didn't want to risk using the die on them), but I cut a white mat for each one using the dies and glued them together.  The white backing helps to pop out the colour of the glitter used.    I created an embossed background with a glitter edge for my card.  I place double sided sticky tape all the way around the edge of the card, then sprinkled Diamond Sprinkles over it.  Then,  using the Tapestry embossing folder, I embossed the piece.   I arranged the baubles in a cluster and made them look as if they were suspended by pearl swirls.  Using the thin red ribbon, I plaited a strip to create a side border for my card (directions for this are in the tutorial section at the top of the blog under Ribbon Wreath).  I used the wider version of the ribbon to tie a double bow and added it with glue dots.  I finished the bow with a pearl embellishment.  I matted the card with a thin red mat before finishing with my double white pierced mat layers.  You could easily add a small sentiment tag if you like, I decided to leave it simple this time.  Finished dimensions are 7 1/2" x 8 3/4" in size.  All for now, Sue x