Spiral Thanks

I created this card inspired by the sketch and photo for the Fusion "Winter" challenge. The dark greens & whites in the trees directed my overall color scheme.

I cut a panel of white cardstock to 5.5x4.25". I must admit, it was a bit of a struggle to position Altenew's "Illusion Spiral" stencil. I wanted it to look kind of like stylized sun rays, with the center of the spiral being the "sun." But I quickly discovered that the way the "rays" are cut in the stencil, they don't go out evenly from the center area, & have odd angles. So I ended up positioning it higher on the panel than I had originally intended, & covered the bottom with my greeting strip. That gave me the look I was after!

I inked through the stencil first with Evergreen Bough Distress ink, using a small makeup brush to blend the color softly & fade out towards white at the edges. Once I had the color blended smoothly, I used a smaller makeup brush & Pine Needles Distress ink to deepen the color just towards the center of the design.

I die cut the greeting with a "Many Thanks" die by My Favorite Things (discontinued). I felt the pale blue cardstock was a bit too flat-looking, next to the ombre of the stenciling. So I used a foam ink blending tool with Tumbled Glass Distress ink to blend up from the bottom of the die cut word. After that, I went in with Peacock Feathers Distress ink to darken the color a bit at the bottom of the letters. I glued that to a strip of dark teal cardstock, adhered that to my panel, & mounted the finished panel to a white card base. Overall, this was a pretty easy card to make. The design and stencil position were the only really hard parts. :)

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

613 Avenue Create's Challenge #229: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)
Die Cut Divas: "New Things" (the "Illusion Spiral" stencil is new for me)

Wintry Thank You

As always, I am in need of a few thank you cards for holiday gifts. I found the inspiration for this from one I had saved on Pinterest. I liked the layered snowflake and basic design of that, so I incorporated those in my card.

I had seen Jennifer McGuire do a technique video about clear heat embossing on matte metallic cardstock, giving an etched look. I have been wanting to try that technique, and decided this would be a good opportunity. At first, I tried heat embossing the greeting (a freebie stamp from Purple Onion Designs) with clear powder. While it technically worked, it was just way too subtle for such a vital part of the card.

So I kind of switched gears, and stamped the greeting in Jet Black StazOn ink on my matte silver cardstock. I hit that with my heat tool for a few seconds to dry it faster so I could move on. I then used Mama Elephant's "Holly's Snowflakes" stamp set to do the faux etched heat embossing. I had to start over yet again, because some of the stamps shifted when I was stamping the snowflakes using a block, and blurred the images. So I used my MISTI tool to help me stamp the snowflakes on another panel, ensuring crisp images. I really love how this came out!

I cut another panel from a patterned paper from my scrap stash, and the bottom panel from a scrap of silver embossed paper that I'd gotten a long time ago at Michael's. I adhered those and my greeting panel to a dark blue cardstock panel that I'd cut to 4.25x5.5". I wrapped a length of a white shimmery ribbon around the middle of the card, and taped the ends to the back of the panel. Then, I used more of the same ribbon to knot around the band, and added a glue dot underneath the knot to keep it in place.

I die cut 2 snowflakes from white glitter paper with the "Paper Snowflakes - Mini" dies by Sizzix & Tim Holtz. I poked a hole in the center of each, positioned the larger one on my card front to mark its spot, and pierced a hole through the ribbon & panel where the snowflakes would go. I inserted a rhinestone brad through the hole in the smaller snowflake, then through the larger, & finally through my panel, then spread the prongs to hold it in place. I attached the panel to a white card base, and this was done!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Dies R Us Challenge #136: "Anything Goes using any brand of metal die that DRU sells" (used 2 Sizzix dies)
Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge: "Something New" (new-to-me technique of heat embossed "etching")
613 Avenue Create #229: "Anything Goes with optional twist - make it shiny" (playing the twist - white glitter snowflakes, rhinestone brad, & shiny ribbon)