Joy to the World

The theme for Merry Monday Christmas Challenge this week has been "Joy." I created this one-layer card using Hero Arts "Stain Glass Nativity" (discontinued) & "Joy to the World" stamps.

Because of the size of the stamps & the layout I wanted to use, I ended up having to make a card slightly smaller than A6 size. I first cut a piece of Strathmore Smooth Bristol paper to 4.25x6.25". After I stamped & heat embossed the image & greeting, I masked them off. I created the mask for the greeting by die cutting one of the "Labels" from Sizzix/Tim Holtz from a full-sticky Post It note, and trimming the top & bottom to be straight.

Once the masks were in place, I inked the whole panel with Hickory Smoke Distress ink. I wanted to create a brick wall look, so this was my "mortar." I taped the "English Brick Wall" stencil from My Favorite Things over my panel. I inked that with Fired Brick & Pumice Stone Distress inks. I had to move the stencil up, matching up the pattern, because it wasn't large enough to cover my whole card front. Thankfully, it's an easy pattern to match! After I removed the stencil, I inked around the edges with more Pumice Stone, to accent the center.

I colored the image with my Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers, adding in a few Tombow markers for colors I didn't have in the Zigs. Once that was done, I lightly (and carefully!) buffed off the ink that was on top of the embossed lines. I outlined the greeting area with a black marker, and adhered my card front to a white card base.

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

A Blog Named Hero: "One Layer"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "Stamp It"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Stamp It"
Creative Knockouts #210 : "Something to Say"