Make a Christmas Wish...

Hello friends and welcome to the brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge! This week our theme is all about STARS and all we want you to do is incorporate them into your projects and just have fun playing along!

I love everything to do with the moon and stars, it absolutely fascinates me, so this was my perfect challenge and I created a Christmas card plaque which I will be giving to my parents for Christmas. The theme for this was all about wishing upon those sparkly stars, making their dreams come true and all courtesy of Santa's Helper who is delivering that precious star so that they can make their wish and I hope 2020 will be their year to shine brightly!!

So, here we go and here's how I created my very special project...

To begin with we'll start with the background and for this I cut a panel of watercolour card, 14 x 18cm and started to add some colour using layers of Distress Inks ~ Evergreen Bough, Tumbled Glass and Antique Linen which I applied to my glass mat, spritzed with water before dragging the card through, transferring the colour onto the card.

Once I was happy with my build up of colour layers, I heat dried the card.

After applying some torn pieces of tissue tape to the central area of my inked card, I added a layer of Matte Collage Medium over the top and once again, heat dried the medium before applying some depth of colour using Pumice Stone and Evergreen Bough Distress Crayons and blending out any harsh lines with my fingertip. I then added a touch of Crackle Paste to create a little more texture, just over the taped background and applying it to random areas. Once it was dry, I ran the Pumice Stone Crayon over the paste, just to accentuate the crackles.

To add even more texture, I used the Hocus Pocus Mini Layering Stencil over the taped area and applied some Grit Paste through the stencil. Ofnce the paste is dry I then splattered the background with some Black Soot Distress Paint and machine stitched a border around the outside.

I matted my background onto layers of card, one layer covered with Red and White Design Tape from Christmas 2018, a layer of green card, a layer of kraft card and a layer of gold metallic card. I then mounted my layers onto a white card blank which I inked around the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink.

I now have my background and it's time to start creating a scene and I started with Santa's Helper. I cut the image twice  from black chipboard and layered the two pieces over the top of one another to create one substantial die cut. I then applied a layer of Matte Collage Medium over the top and sprinkled black glitter over it. Tap away the excess and set to one side. Once the glitter is completely set, I then coloured a piece of Mummy Cloth with Barn Door Distress Spray Stain and once that was dry, I wrapped it around the elf's neck to keep him warm and tied it to create a scarf.

For the stars, I cut four various sized stars from chipboard using one of Tim's older dies, the Crescent Moon and Stars die and also used the Sizzix Dimensional Stars die, both of which are from my own stash, to cut one of the medium sized stars in the dimensional stars set. After folding the star along the score lines, I applied a layer of Matte Collage Medium over each of the five stars and added some Gold Rush Glass Glitter.

Tap away any excess glitter but whilst the medium is still wet on the glittered stars, I added even more glitter and sparkle and sprinkled Vintage Platinum Glitter Dust over the top. Allow for all the stars to completely dry.

Taking the baseboard frame from the Christmas Layers and Baseboard Frame set, I cut a section from the bottom of the frame so that it would fit my card perfectly. The frame measures, 12.5 x 16cm.

I attached the frame to my background using foam pads and then added four Hardware Heads, embossed with a little white embossing powder and placed them onto each corner.

Taking my glittery elf, I placed him onto foam pads and attached him in the centre of the frame. I then added the dimensional star so that he's carrying it.

You can see the dimension that the foam pads give to the elf in the photo below...

At the top of the frame, I added an arrangement of Holiday Greens, cut from Classic Kraft Stash. Each piece was dry brushed with Picket Fence Distress Paint and once I'd added a smear of Collage Medium over the foliage pieces, I dipped them into Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

Allow to dry and then arrange the pieces in a spray across the top of the frame. I also added a few pieces of foliage that I cut from silver metallic kraft stash before attaching a mini plaquette in the centre of the foliage. To complete the foliage, I added some berries and as many of you know if you follow my work, I use Autumn Red Tonic Nuvo Drops to create these and just apply a drop the relevant pieces.

Add the remaining stars by attaching them around the frame.

Finally, I used the 'Christmas Wishes' Quote Chip along the bottom of the frame and used two silver metallic droplets to either side of the chip.

So, that's my card finished and ready to be written and given to my parents ~ fingers crossed they love it as much as I loved creating it and I also hope you love this project and all the techniques that I've used to bring it to life!

Don't forget, if you would like to see 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 and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by today and hope to see you again soon, love Emma xxx

Recipe for project:

Tim Holtz/Sizzix: Santa's Helper, Dimensional Stars, Mini Holiday Greens
Mini Layering Stencils Set 43
Distress Inks: Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass and Evergreen Bough
Distress Spray Stain: Barn Door

Idea-ology: Mummy Cloth, Christmas Quote Chips, Mini Plaquettes, Metallic Droplets, Christmas Layers and Base Board Frames, Hardware Heads

Mediums: Matte Collage Medium, Grit Paste, Rock Candy Glitter, Vintage Platinum Glitter Dust, Black Glitter, Gold Rush Glass Glitter, Autumn Red Tonic Nuvo Drops, Crackle Paste
Surfaces: Mixed Media Heavystock, Metallic Kraft Stash, Kraft Card, White Card Blank, Midnight Green Card, Chipboard, Symphony Tissue Tape
Foam Pads, 2018 Tim Holtz Christmas Design Tape, Distress Watercolour Card, Black Chipboard
Tim Holtz Media Glass Mat

Heat Gun
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