Be Merry

This is my second card for Merry Monday Christmas Challenge blog's "Black, White, & Gold" challenge. I'll say it again--I really struggled with this. It just doesn't seem like a natural color palette to me, especially mixing white with gold.

I die cut the reindeer using Impression Obsession's "Reindeer" from Craft-a-Board. The first time, I tried using Ferro, but ended up with just a royal mess. So, for my second attempt, I applied Versamark ink to the whole die cut, and heat embossed with Ranger Gold embossing powder. I repeated this 2 more times, to get a smooth & thorough coverage.

For the background, I used Our Daily Bread Designs' "Small Snowflake" background stamp (discontinued). Again, I stamped in Versamark on black paper, and heat embossed with gold. I die cut a window with the largest of Spellbinders' "Standard Circles LG" dies.

I cut another piece of black to A2 size, and laid my embossed panel over it. I lightly traced around the circle, so I would know where to stamp my greeting (from My Favorite Things' "Joyous Christmas Sentiments" set). Then I placed that panel in my MISTI, and laid my reindeer in place to help me position my stamp. I stamped in Versamark ink, and heat embossed with Wow White Pearl embossing powder. It didn't really show up well, so I restamped it, and heat embossed with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. There were a few "holes" in the letters, though, so I went over those with my Versamarker, and heat embossed again with white. That left obvious white spots, though, so I stamped again, and heat embossed with the White Pearl. Finally, it looked good!

To assemble my card, I popped the background up with foam tape, and glued the reindeer in place above the greeting. I adhered my card front to a white A2 card base, and it was done!

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

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "Stamp It"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Stamp It"
Simon Says Stamp's Work It Wednesday Challenge: "Use a Stamp"