He's Making A List and Checking It Twice...

Hello friends!

Hope all your Christmas preparations are going well and you're nearly ready for the big day and if you have some free time to spare, then why not join us for the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which this week is called ~ STITCH IT UP!

With just a few more days to go, I thought I would share the special Christmas card that I've created for my parents. I always love creating Christmas cards that sometimes aren't the traditional colours that you associate with Christmas and I must admit I do love the whole black and white theme at Christmas, the look of chalkboard with just a hint of metallic and shimmer popping through. I'm sure if you scroll back in time on this blog, you might be able to find the other's that I've made in the past and hope that they will all inspire you with some last minute card ideas!

So, let's begin the brand new challenge and here's how I created my project...

 

I started this card by creating my outer background layer, as you can see it's got quite a few matts but I love how these frame the central panel. I cut a piece of black card, 18 x 17cm and inked up the Sparkles stamp from the with white ink and stamped a border around the outside edge of the card panel. To set the ink, I gave it a blast of a heat gun and then matted the stamped panel onto a piece of silver metallic kraft card, before mounting it onto a black card blank.

Now to create that central panel and I started with a second piece of black card, 13 x 14cm. I then took the "Greetings" stamp from the stamp set (I am a font junkie, so this stamp set is definitely one of my favourites of this year) and inked up the message with a clear Versamark Ink Pad, stamping it directly onto the card, placing it on the left hand side. I then took the little pot of Pearl Perfect Pearls and using a Ranger Perfect Pearls brush, I dabbed the pigment over the top of the tacky ink. It is so important at this stage to just dab the powder over the top of the ink and NOT brush the pigment into the ink, as you won't get such a good effect. Once the ink is covered in powder, then you can brush it away and it should reveal your message! To set the pigment, which is very important ~ you can either mist it with a very light spray of water and heat dry or you can use a cheap hairspray which will act as a fixative.

I then took a piece of chalk, ran it around the edge of the card to create that smudgy chalkboard effect. To complete the background of this layer, I then used the same stamp as I used on the previous outer layer and stamped a border in white ink around the edge of the card.

Now for the first layer of stitching and I just machine stitched around the edge of the stamped card, leaving loose ends of cotton just hanging free on the corner. After adding a few flicks of Picket Fence Distress Paint across the surface, I then matted the card panel onto some more silver metallic card and another layer of black card, which also had a machine stitched border and loose threads. 

I attached this onto the centre of my card blank using foam pads for some dimension.

Using the beautiful image of Santa, I stamped this in Jet Black Archival Ink onto the smooth side of the watercolour card and watercolored it using Distress Marker Pens. I then did a little fussy cutting around the outline and layered him onto foam pads before attaching him to the right hand side of the panel.

I completed the background with some die cut silver stars that I had left over from another project and placed a Clippings Sticker above the Greetings message.

Now to complete the card and add the final embellishments and all that gorgeous metallic shimmer ~ I began by die cutting some silver metallic kraft card and some of the rose gold metallic kraft card using the 3D Holly Die. I then applied some Mushroom Alcohol Ink over the top of the rose gold and some Gunmetal Alcohol Ink over the top of the silver die cut. To create the poinsettia, I used some more of the silver metallic kraft card stock which I had lightly sanded and die cut two layers of petals using the Tattered Poinsettia die. After shaping my die cuts, I then layered them over the top of one another, slightly offsetting them and placed some glitter in the centre.

Attach the poinsettia to the card, layering it over the top of the 3D holly branches.

The final embellishment was my little snow capped yule log ~ this is created using one of the wood slices which I topped with some Grit Paste, sprinkled with Rock Candy Dry Distress Glitter.

For the number 25, I used the Numeric Adornments and painted them with Festive Berries Distress Paint before attaching them to my log with Matte Collage Medium.

Thank you so much for spending some time on my blog today and I hope you've loved this project as much as I loved creating it, it's always fun to share my ideas with you all!

Don't forget, you can find more inspiration from my talented teamies over on the challenge blog and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

See you very soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Stamps: Yuletide, ChristmasTime, Sparkles
Tim Holtz/Sizzix Dies: Impresslits Cut and Emboss 3D Holly Branch, Tattered Poinsettia

Distress Paint: Picket Fence, Festive Berries

Idea-ology: Christmas Clippings Sticker, Numeric, Wood Slice
Distress Marker Pens

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Rock Candy Dry Glitter, Gold Rush Glass Glitter, Grit Paste, Crackle Paste, Hero Arts Unicorn White Ink Pad, Versamark Emboss Ink Pad
Alcohol Ink: Mushroom, Gunmetal
Perfect Pearl Powder, Ranger Flat Brushes

Surfaces: Metallic Kraft Stash, Metallic Kraft Stash 2, Watercolour Card

Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Tim Holtz Guillotine

Heat Gun
Chalk and black card blank from my own stash