Heart of Christmas - Week 3

Hi there

Welcome to another week of Christmas inspiration from the Art with Heart team. This week I have been playing with the lovely Dashing Deer bundle that is new in the upcoming Holiday catalogue and the Swirls and Curls embossing folder. You will be able to purchase these products from my online store from 5 September.

I've paired the leaping reindeer with the lovely nesting Stitched Seasons Framelits from the limited time Blended Seasons bundle that is available until 31 August (only 2 days left, so don't miss out). I started out with this card in Real Red and Call Me Clover for a bright take on the traditional Christmas colours. I have some tips for you, to get the best result with the Swirls & Curls embossing folder. The design is deeply etched and gives a beautiful texture to the card. I highly recommend that you spritz your card stock with water before you emboss it, to help the fibres stretch and prevent the card stock from cracking.  After the embossed piece was dry I spritzed it with shimmer mist (created with rubbing alcohol and  Frost White Shimmer Paint) to give it a gorgeous sparkly finish, which is impossibly difficult to photograph!

 

I find it easier to cut the card stock to the exact size you want before embossing, as it can be hard to trim it accurately afterwards. So, you need to add 3mm to the required length of your card stock as the embossing shrinks it. More below on how I found that out the hard way, lol. The width is unchanged by the embossing.

I used the nesting dies from Stitched Seasons Framelits to cut the green frame and then the smallest die to cut the red centre from the All is Bright Designer Paper. You can see the lovely stitched finish on the edge in this close-up. I positioned the greeting and then popped up the lovely leaping deer that was cut from Gold Glimmer paper over the top. I stamped and coloured the holly with my Stampin' Blends in Real Red and Call Me Clover and added it to the end of the greeting for a finishing touch.

For the inside, I have added the lovely greeting in the centre and the flourish at the bottom, which was heat embossed in gold. Both of these images come from the Dashing Deer stamp set.

Project Details
Stamps	Dashing Deer, Peaceful Poinsettia
Card stock & Papers	Real Red, Call Me Clover, Whisper White, All is Bright DSP, Gold Glimmer
Ink	Versamark, Call Me Clover, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories	White Baker's Twine
Tools	Stitched Seasons Framelits, Detailed Deer Thinlits, Swirls & Curls TIEF, Big Shot, Frost White Shimmer Paint, Stampin' Blends (Real Red & Call Me Clover), Dimensionals, Tombow Adhesive

 

I then decided to make the same layout again, but this time in a blue colour combo. The base card is Night of Navy and the embossed piece is in Balmy Blue. It was after embossing this piece (cut to my required measurements) that I discovered I had lost 3mm in height (oops!), so I added the narrow white border. I think the white helps to make it pop; so an accident with a happy ending. This time I used the de-bossed side for a different look and the shimmer mist turned it more into a softer ice-blue.

This time, I have cut the frame in Silver Foil, which shows off the stitched edging beautifully. The centre is from the Twinkle Twinkle Designer Paper, which is perfect for a night sky background. The leaping deer was cut from (retired) Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer, which has now been replaced by the Sparkle Glimmer paper.

This time I matted the greeting onto Balmy Blue and heat embossed the holly in white on the Silver Foil, as I didn't want to add any other colours. I finished it with some rhinestones.

 The new products from the Holiday Catalogue that I have used on this card will be available for purchase from 5 September 2018.

Project Details
Stamps	Dashing Deer, Peaceful Poinsettia
Card stock & Papers	Night of Navy, Balmy Blue, Whisper White, Silver Foil, Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer (retired), Twinkle Twinkle DSP
Ink	Versamark, Night of Navy
Accessories	Rhinestone Basic Jewels, 1/8" Silver ribbon (retired)
Tools	Detailed Deer Thinlits, Swirls & Curls TIEF, Big Shot, White EP, Heat gun, Dimensionals, Frost White Shimmer Paint

You can see more inspiring Christmas projects from other members of the team.  Click on Claire's Blog to see the full list of participants this week.

Thanks for visiting today!

Comments

[Caroline]

Both your cards are beautiful Judy, although I'd pick the blue one as my favourite.

[Kate Morgan]

I can't decide which card is my favourite, they are both stunning, especially with that pretty swirly embossed background!

[Catherine Proctor]

Judy these cards are so classical and beautiful...I especially like the card in the shades of blue, just stunning!