Happy Christmas Everyone! Shimmer, Glimmer and Glitz

Rather belated but better late than never. Over at Gingers some of us have put together Christmas cards to wish followers A Merry Christmas. I would like to extend this to all fellow bloggers a very Merry Christmas and here is to a great New Year of crafting. God bless all of you!

This is an Elusive Image stamp which I stamped onto glassine and then coloured with Sakura Glittery pens and a water brushed the colours so that they reacted more as paints.

i am entering it into the Stampotique challenge which will be the very last week to enter with another stamp company stamp. In fact I think it is the first week I have ever entered without using a Stampotique stamp. Well I had to join in once when I was allowed.

Snow Hugs

Today I have made a simple card from the Rogue Redhead designed stamps. These glorious hearts come from The Snow Hugs plate. At the Rogue Redhead shop there are some amazing deals to be had on their stamp plates. Why not take a look. You will be surprised how many stamps you can get for very little.

Wax with Gingersnaps

This is a piece I started when I had my fab girls weekend with Sue and Sioux. I wanted to create a canvas white toned Christmasy piece that looked cold and wintery. The star was a stencil which I filled with Terra Texture paint. When dry I painted it and the canvas with pale cool colours. I sprinkled clear glitter onto the star so it would stick whilst the paint was drying. I then stamped onto tissue paper and applied this onto the canvas.

When I came home I wanted the colours to be even softer so applied a thin layer of wax over some of the images to soften them. I also applied the Merry Christmas by stamping onto tissue paper and adhering with wax. I have also found this glorious ultra thick gesso which I spread over sequin waste to give it more dimension and texture.

There are some other varied creations by the design team over on Gingersnaps. Please take a look.

Non Traditional Christmas Card week with Stampotique 43

Stampotique's challenge this time was to create a Christmas card with no Red or Green So here is my version. 

I used Beach Washed paper that has a darker core and ran it through a Cuttlebug embossing folder to bring this out more. Sanded the top and then rubbed an embossing pad over the high points and added clear glitter embossing powder. This gives it a subtle sparkle. The snowman was stamped and again embossed with clear glitter powder. He too has a very subtle sparkle. I gave the snowman a candy cane which I did not colour with red and mounted the tag onto this brown and blue backing paper which I think really sets it off.  I love the pale blue dots on the paper as they remind me of snow falling or snowballs.

T!m's 12 Tags 2011 (2 - 5)

Tag 5

I am starting T!m's 12 tags by blogging Tag 5 as I am so proud of my cheat! I did not have any reflection stamps but I did have some Christmas cards that looked like the word background. So I simple stuck one to the tag and cut around.

This next bit is the bit I am proud of. How to incorporate the plastic front to look similar. I took some acetate and ran it through a snowflake embossing folder. Not a Tim one as they tend to be deeper cut and thought it may cut through? But as I haven't tried it, it may not? Then I took a really old almost dried out Stazon in black and rubbed it gently over the high points. Stuck it over the tag. Fab. Not only distressed looking but with a snowflake texture as well.

I did have the right die for the wreath so I took 2 different green core card and cut the leaves. Rubbed them with sand paper and layered and adhered. I rather like the two tones of green. Finally added a wish embellishment as well as the pearls and ribbons and it was done.

Tag 4

The main difference with this tag to T!m's is that I cut the snowman out of thick brown card which worked great as it did not curl at all. The second difference was that I used Picket Fence Crackle paint rather that Rock Candy Crackle paint. I was making this tag with my friends Sue and Sioux,  during a wonderful girls weekend, (you can read more about it on Sioux blog), who both used the correct Rock Candy paint. I must admit I preferred the finish for the Snowman of the Picket Fence as it was beautifully matt and felt more like snow.

Tag 3

As Tag 4 was the first of the tags I made when we came to do Tag 3 together we all decided to improvise since as we did not have the proper stamp. I decided to use a similar technique as for the Snowman to incorporate the cut out Joy word to add to the tag for a little different definition. I backed this with copper foil. We all mixed and match word stamps to create something that was along the lines of T!m's tag using different colour for the words.

Tag 2

Now finally this lush Reindeer. I just love this calico reindeer and would never have thought of doing this, but I love it. Bit of improvisation on this tag but not much. Added a "Joy" charm embellishment as the calico reindeer brought me such joy. 

I will also link this post to Grungy Monday and join in the fun there!