Reindeer Joy

This month's "Mix It Up" challenge at Ellen Hutson's blog is to combine one or more products from the Essentials by Ellen line with one or more by Impression Obsession. I used the "Bokeh Dots" stamp set from Essentials by Ellen with Impression Obsession's "Reindeer" die.

I began by cutting a piece of burgundy cardstock to 4x5.25", & die cut the reindeer from that. For the panel to go behind the reindeer, I used a lesson by Kristina Werner from Online Card Classes' "Pattern Play" class. On a piece of scratch cardstock, I marked the center line, then drew a diagonal line on either side, at a 45 degree angle to the center. Then I glued down 3/8" wide strips of patterned paper (from my scrap stash), starting along those diagonal lines, working my way up the cardstock piece, creating something like a herringbone pattern. Finally, I trimmed the excess paper that was hanging over the edges.

Detail of gold embossing

Before adhering my main panel to the patterned paper piece, I masked off an area for the greeting, and stamped one of the scribbly rings from "Bokeh Dots" several times on the burgundy panel. I then heat embossed my stamping with Ranger's Gold embossing powder. For the lines above and below the greeting, I used a ruler and my Versamarker to put down two lines of ink, then heat embossed those with gold as well.

For the greeting, I heat embossed another scrap of cardstock, by smooshing Versamark ink onto the cardstock, sprinkling on my powder, and heating it until it melted. I did this a total of 3 times, to get as smooth a surface as possible. I then die cut the greeting, using Lawn Fawn's "Scripty Joy" die. I ran that through my Xyron Sticker Maker, and adhered it in place. (I used my 2-way glue pen to glue down the dot for the "j.")

I used the same procedure for the gold mat as for the greeting, but only did the embossing once this time. I figured, since the reindeer was leaping towards the right side of the card, I'd position my burgundy panel in the lower left corner, with the mat to the top and right. This would give the reindeer visual room to "move."

To assemble the card, I ran my burgundy panel through my Xyron Creative Station. (This is basically a larger version of the Sticker Maker.) I adhered the patterned paper panel behind the reindeer cut out, and mounted the whole thing to my mat. The dry adhesive wouldn't stick very well to the heat embossed areas on the mat, though, so I ended up running a line of Ranger Multi Medium Matte along the right & top sides on the back of the burgundy, and putting the whole thing under a couple of books until the glue dried. Finally, I adhered my completed card front to a white A2 card base.

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

Live Love Cards September Challenge: "Sparkle & Shine"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "STAMPtember Use a Stamp & Bloghop"