Keep on Shining

The current challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge blog is to combine something new with something old. I used a brand-new-to-me stamp set from Hero Arts with an older one from Simon Says Stamp.

I took my inspiration from this video by Jennifer McGuire. She used Hero Arts' "Christmas Crystals" stamp set to do a technique she called "repeat stamping." Basically, she stamped a single crystal stamp repeatedly around a central point to create a star-like image.

I first determined where my central point would be, and drew in my guidelines on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper. Then I stamped the crystal around that point, using Versafine Onyx Black ink. I heat embossed it with Zing! Clear embossing powder. Finally, I colored it with my Inktense pencils, using one color per section. I used my water brush to blend each color.

After my stamped image dried, I went over it with my clear Wink of Stella glitter brush marker, to give it some shimmer. I die cut a hole in the middle with a Spellbinders "Standard Circles SM" die. After positioning my focal panel over the teal piece I'd cut for the background, I traced around the hole, to mark where my greeting would go. I then stamped the greeting from this set in Versamark, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I finished the card by applying foam tape to the back of the main panel and adhering it to the teal mat. Or I thought that finished it....

I decided there was just too much white space, so I used some Ranger Multi Medium Matte to glue some sequins down. Finally, I adhered the card front to an A2 size card base. Now the card was done! I will be sending this card to Send a Smile 4 Kids, to be given to a hospitalized child. Hopefully this will brighten his/her day!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

a2z Scrapbooking's January challenge: "New to You"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge: "Something New"