Saturday, September 26, 2015

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"

24 comments:

  1. Ohhh my goodness what a beautiful beautiful card. True winner, just perfect. I have this stamp and love it but it is limited in what can be done with it. You have just shown the perfect way to do so.

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  2. Stunning!!! Great work overlapping the two die cut panels, and the colours are so gorgeous!! Thanks for playing with us at a2z!!

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  3. Gorgeous!! WOWweeeeeeee! I have loved ALL your shaker cards, but this one.....blows me away! :)

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  4. Beautiful, rich color, Andrea! This is gorgeous! Thanks for sharing it with us at Merry Monday!

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  5. fabulous! thanks for entering it with a2z's shaker challenge!

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  6. Cool shaker card! Thanks for joining us on Simon Says Stamp Monday blog challenge!

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  7. Beautiful shaker card! I love how you used different blue shades - adds so much interest. Thanks so much for joining us at Merry Monday.

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  8. WOW! So very Moroccan! So beautiful especially the gold embossing.I love it. Thanks for playing along Simon Says Stamp No Designer Paper Challenge.
    Gayatri

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  9. This is absolutely stunning! I just love how you've achieved this look, something I never would have thought of. So much fun to see into each other's thought processes. :)

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  10. Wow! Beautful, love every detail! Thanks for playing along with a2z!

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  11. Oh, I looooove this use of that background stamp! So very pretty, thanks for joining us at a2z Scrapbooking!

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  12. Beautifully done Andrea. So pleased you have joined the challenge at a2z this month

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