Wooden snowflakes

This is another card made out of the bits left over from creating the small batches of Christmas cards (1, 2, 3, 4).

The stencilled panel was originally going to be layered with the smaller panel on the holly flourish card, but I wasn’t happy with how that was looking. Instead, I used it as the starting point for this card, along with a few wooden snowflakes — I have a whole box of these, I may have to see if I can come up with a clean and simple design for another batch of cards, either that or winter-themed mixed media piece…

I added the red glitter over each of the dots on the stencil design — I often find it helps to do something rather than just stare at a bit of stash and hope that a design idea will come to you. While I was waiting for the glitter to dry, I coloured the snowflakes with silver pigment ink, which wasn’t as effective as I had hoped so I added a coat of pico embellisher (like a thinner, sparkly version of glossy accents).

I stamped the card base with gold pigment ink. Even with heat setting, it still lifted off on my fingers a little so I decided to have a go at giving it a light coat of Distress micro glaze — I have successfully fixed incompletely dried pigment inks before with it, though in that case, it was on a card I had made over a year earlier rather than just a few hours… But it worked. Mostly. There was a bit at the bottom that smudged and that is why there are strips of glitter tape there. And I had to add tape to the top as well, for balance…

Then I assembled the card, not thinking about a sentiment.

Ever since I got my first stamp positioner, I have avoided stamping sentiments by hand as it seems like a quick and easy way to ruin an otherwise completed card. But this card really needed a sentiment and, with the snowflakes already glued on, I was going to have to do it with an acrylic block. Choosing a sentiment with a bit of a grungy font would help disguise any mistakes and using Versafine — a nice juicy ink pad — gave me the best chance of getting a complete impression. I know some people can accurately line up clear stamps to re-stamp, but it’s not something I have ever been able to do.

Luckily, I didn’t mess it up and now I have another card for my Christmas stash.

Has anyone else made a start on their Christmas crafting yet?

Supplies:

• stamps:
  Polkadoodles – snowflake garden
  Bo Bunny – sentiments
• stencils:
  Polkadoodles – holly flourish
• colour:
  Distress oxide – peeled paint
• inks:
  Delicata – silvery shimmer
  Delicata – golden glitz
  Versafine – smokey gray
• embellishments:
  Imagination Crafts – detail sparkle – berries
  Irresistible pico embellisher – shimmer
  glitter tape – green, gold
  wooden snowflakes
• paper and card:
  Hunkydory Adorable Scorable
  Strathmore Bristol smooth 300