Christmas Blessings Shaker

Online Card Classes has been having their "Watercolor for Card Makers: Exploring Mediums" class this week. One of the mediums they discussed and demonstrated was tube watercolors. Even though I've had my Winsor & Newton Cotman tube watercolors for some time, I haven't really played with them all that much. Today I decided to pull them out for this card.

Merry Monday Christmas Challenge blog is having their Challenge #172: "Make a Christmas card using watercoloring." I figured this card would be a perfect fit.

I began by stamping the "Large Petal Background," by Hero Arts & BasicGrey, in Versamark ink on a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper. I heat embossed that with Ranger Gold embossing powder. Then I used my craft knife to cut out the center portion, to create a window for my shaker. I painted the remaining sections in 3 shades of blue, then let that air dry.

Detail of greeting

Once my panel was dry, I taped the "Christmas Blessings" dies, by Simon Says Stamp, onto it, overlapping the edges of the window. I ran it through my die cutting machine, with a dryer sheet under the paper to hold on to the little negative die cut pieces. I also die cut the greeting out of some gold cardstock. I adhered a piece of acetate behind my card panel, with a combination of Be Creative tape at the sides, & Ranger Multi Medium Matte for the more intricate areas. After running my die cut words through my Xyron Sticker Maker, I adhered them over the window, inlaying them into the spaces where I'd cut out the letters from the panel. I also inlaid all the negative pieces into the openings in the letters, using Multi Medium to glue them down.

I cut a piece of white cardstock to the same size as my front panel, and blended Broken China Distress ink over the entire piece. I made sure to keep it lighter in the middle and darker around the edges. Then, I applied 2 layers of foam tape to the back of my window panel, making sure none showed through the window opening. I filled the shaker part with a mix of blue & gold sequins from Doodlebug Design, 6mm Sparkling Clear sequins by Pretty Pink Posh, and an assortment of seed beads from my stash. (Leftovers from my beading days!) After removing all the release papers from the foam tape, I adhered my backer panel. Then I added my completed card front to a white A2 card base. I will be giving this to my counselor's receptionist for Christmas this year. She loves blue, and shaker cards!

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

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "No Designer Paper"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "STAMPtember Use a Stamp Challenge & Bloghop"
a2z Scrapbooking's September challenge "Shake It Up"
A Blog Named Hero's "Die Cutting"