Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Blessings


I am so happy with how this card turned out! I got the "Stain Glass Nativity" stamp from Hero Arts (discontinued) at Michael's last year, and had never inked it up. I was going through my holiday stamps recently--again--and came across this one. I decided it was finally time to make it into a card.

I stamped the image with Versafine Onyx Black ink onto a piece of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper, and heat embossed it with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. Then I colored it with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers. I did do a tiny bit of shading on the faces, but otherwise kept the colors flat, to mimic the look of stained glass. When I finished coloring, I fussy cut the window out.

Then--what to do for a design??? I knew I wanted to keep it simple, to let the image shine, but I wasn't sure exactly what direction to take. So I pulled out a white A2 card base, just to see what sort of area I had to work with. I do this sometimes, since it helps me visualize the space better.

I decided to use Simon Says Stamp's "Christmas Blessings" die for the greeting. I backed gold glitter paper with black fun foam that I'd applied Stick It adhesive to. I applied more Stick It to the other side of the foam, and die cut the words. In the end, I felt like the "Christmas" was just crowding the design. It also seemed kind of redundant anyway, since the image is a nativity scene. So I left off the "Christmas" word, and just kept "Blessings."

I cut a piece of dark blue cardstock to 4.25x5.5". I wanted there to be kind of a glow around the window, so I inked around the perimeter of my cardstock with Chipped Sapphire Distress ink. I followed that with Black Soot Distress ink, to increase the contrast even more. I adhered my window to the panel, and put my greeting below it. Finally, I mounted the panel to my white card base.

I'm entering this card in A Blog Named Hero's November Challenge: "Holiday Themed."

2 comments:

  1. Incredible card creation! Thank you for sharing your techniques for making this beauty .... I've just ordered my first set of Zig Clean Color Markers and you've inspired me with your lovely coloring of this holy image. Merry Christmas to you (a little early)!

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear your thoughts on my work, so feel free to speak your mind!