Focusing on getting my blog rolling these past few weeks has pulled me away from getting my holiday cards done ahead of schedule (not that they ever have been but it’s such a responsible idea). Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on if you need to be outside), we were hit with a huge winter snowstorm in southern Wisconsin. It provides a perfect, quiet nest at home for a huge start on getting my 50 cards done. Ambitious, yes. Crazy, absolutely. I used today’s articles in a series, to demonstrate different cards with the same focal point (although the other half of the 50 will be using the Santa image in the Believe set. I can’t wait). Each card highlights a little something new in its design.
I began this project by heat embossing the tree (and soooo many others) in gold. Embossing makes such an elegant splash and is especially nice if you are a tad “marker challenged” and want to color the tree leaves inside the lines easily. My 14 year old daughter was assigned filling in the little holly
berries with a Real Red Marker and then getting them to sparkle with a
Sakura Glaze Pen. On this particular card, I added Old Olive to some of the leaves, along with the Sakura Glaze Pen for texture. It gives a very cool “cloisonne” look with the shiny leaves and berries combined with the gold emboss.
The key to keeping my sanity as I tried to produce a different look for each golden tree? Designer paper. Looking past the holidays? The preview mini catalog (see the PDF file on my right sidebar) has some gorgeous options available Jan. 2.
COMING UP: I’ll be posting projects over the next few days using some of my old rubber stamp friends, ready for retirement from Stampin’ Up! but still available through Jan. 1. The retirement list is available in PDF form on my right sidebar, under Stampin’ News.
Hugs and Pretties M
Stamp Set: Papertrey Believe
Paper: Cerise and Dashing Designer Series Paper Collections, Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Real Red
Ink: Real Red, Old Olive Marker
Tools: Sponges, Marvy Uchida Mega Scalloped Rectangle Punch, Curvy Cutter Rectangles, Cutter Kit (for distressing ovals), Heat Tool
Perfect Touches: Gold Embossing Powder, Sakura Glaze Pen, Stampin’ Dimensionals
