Joy

The theme for Challenge #251 at Merry Monday is "Monochromatic Blue." I used Hero Arts' "Joy Burst" stamp & Spellbinders' "Grand Ovals" dies (discontinued) to create my shaped card.

I used one of the "Grand Ovals" dies as a template to trace onto a piece of Strathmore Smooth Bristol Paper. (Because of the sizing, I had to trace around the inside of the die, rather than cut with it.) I cut that out with scissors, and erased any pencil marks. I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to help me position the image, and stamped it in Versamark ink. I heat embossed with Wow White Pearl embossing powder.

After the powder cooled, I used 3 blue Tombow markers to color in the letters for an ombre look. I coated them in Glossy Accents, to act as a resist for the inking I planned to do. After that dried, I inked around the outer perimeter with Blueprint Sketch Distress ink. I followed that with Salty Ocean Distress ink, going over the darker blue & also adding that alone in the center to create an outside-to-inside ombre effect. Finally, to deepen the color around the very edge, I inked with Chipped Sapphire.

I traced around the inside of the next larger oval die onto white cardstock, cut it out with scissors, & matted my main panel onto that. I traced around the outside of the same die for my blue mat. Then I traced around the inside of the next die up twice for my card base. I scored about 1/2" from one long edge on one of those pieces, and also cut off about 3/8" from the opposite side. I added Scor Tape above the score line, and adhered the other matching oval to that to form the base for my card. Then I mounted my layered panel to the card base. Finally, I added some 3mm clear gems from The Paper Studio to the centers of some of the snowflakes in the stamped image.

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

a2z Scrapbooking's June Challenge: "Take Shape"
Christmas Card Throwdown's June Stash Challenge: "Use Gems, Pearls, or Sequins"