Season's Greetings Christmas Card

Hey Everyone, 

It's October 1st, so it's ok to post Christmas cards now!

This is one of the cards I made for the new Christmas release from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous.  I  loved this one because all of the elements really came together. And the pinecones; I'm a sucker for pinecones.  I apologize for the cruddy photos.  I had to get a new phone and these were taken with the old guy.  They are a bit darker than I would like them.

I started by taking the Stamptember set from 2018 and using archival inks in Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo.  I used specialty stamping paper and stamped the images in the corners.  I wanted a good portion of the image, but still blank space in the center so the sentiment would draw your eye.
 I blended old paper, antique linen, and tea dye distress inks all over the entire background. I lightly spritzed on distress spray stain in tea dye and quickly blotted it so it just makes the paper look like it's foxed. I added highlights using a gold gel pen.

  The sentiment is from the new Christmastime 2 set(CMS389).  It was stamped and then embossed using Ranger embossing powder in gold. 
The specialty stamping paper was then backed with brown kraft stock.

The next layer is the snowflake acetate sheet from last year's Ideaology Christmas Stack. 
The gold metallic kraftstock was stamped with the new Lumberjack set(CMS384) using archival ink in Vintage photo. 

I dyed some sari ribbon using all(yes all of them) the green Distress Inks.  I smooshed then all on my glass mat and ran the damp sari ribbon in it until I was happy with the color.  I added a bit of Vintage Photo Distress Ink to pull in the brown.  The ideaology pinecones were colored using gold and mushroom alcohol inks.  They were tied on with an ideaology tiny bell.  I glued the ribbon to the back of the layers and then used a final layer of kraftstock as my card base. 

I hope this starts to get you into the Christmas spirit!
Happy making,
Jess

Fall is in the air

Hi Everyone,
Ahhh, triple digits are gone so it must be Fall in Arizona.  I live right near Phoenix, so no changing leaves for me.  I grew up in Massachusetts and I think that's why Fall is my favorite season.  I don't know why but Autumn always makes me reflect on what I have and what I am thankful for.  This little wreath reminds me that there is something to appreciate every day.

I want to apologize for not taking photos while I worked.  I am really bad about getting caught up in creating and forgetting to take pictures.

 I die cut my leaves, out of manila, and used different Distress Inks to make them colorful.  I just grabbed anything that looked like I could use it-reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and browns.  I used a lot of color and really saturated the paper.  Once the ink was dry I covered the leaves in Distress Rock Candy Crackle and set them aside.

The Rock Candy gives the leaves a gorgeous crackle and shine.  You can leave them just like they are after this step and they look amazing, but I wanted to add a bit more.  I used my embossing powders to make them pop! I love how they turned out.

Next I took a huge bunch of seam binding and died it using Distress Stains.  I kept a lot of the colors I used in my leaves on the ribbon.  I wrapped a word band on the ribbon and tied a big fussy bow.  Pinecone charms add an extra fall touch.  I cut the bales off and just glued them on the ribbon.  Embossing powder on the ribbon gives it extra sparkle too.

For the final embellishment I used a round cabochon charm and some fall berries.

Try making some leaves.  They are super fun and playing with the different inks and powders will produce a different effect each time.  

Jess

Fabulous Supplies available on Emerald Creek: 

Charred Gold Embossing powder

Hammered Metal Embossing Powder

Burnt Copper Leaves

 Pinecone charms

round cabochon charm 

Distress Inks 

Distress Stains

Other supplies: 

Seam Binding

Wreath

Word Band

Word Token

Brad

Distress Rock Candy Crackle