Ombre Joy

Today is the final day for Hero Arts' Holiday Cardmaking Challenge. So I made one final card, using the "Joy Burst" stamp from Hero Arts.

I got the idea for the coloring on my focal panel from somewhere on the Internet, but unfortunately can't remember where I saw the card! I did use Operation Write Home's Sketch #258 for my design, though. I stamped the image onto a piece of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper with Versamark ink, then heat embossed it with Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder. I took 2 blue Zig Clean Color markers, and colored the darker one at the bottoms of the letters. I blended that out with the lighter marker, and finally used a water brush to blend out to the lightest shade at the top of each letter. I left the rest of the image plain, to make sure the letters are the star of the show. After the color dried, I die cut it with the largest of Spellbinders' "Classic Ovals LG" dies.

I used the same die to trace an oval onto navy blue cardstock and cut that out with scissors to create a mat for my focal panel. I embossed a panel of light blue cardstock with the "Snowflake" embossing folder from Darice. Then I used 3 patterned papers from my scrap stash to cut the banners, and adhered all my elements to the background. Finally, I used Perfect Paper Adhesive to glue down 3 buttons in a cluster. When the glue had dried, I used silver embroidery floss to stitch through the buttonholes. I adhered my completed card front to a white A2 card base, and I now have another holiday card for my stash!

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

A Blog Named Hero "Holiday Themed"
a2z Scrapbooking's November Challenge: "Embellishment"