SCS October Fan Club Brayered Christmas card

Hi blogging friends

When I saw that the Splitcoaststampers October Fan Club challenge was "sleigh", I thought I would use a silhouette Santa and sleigh image over a brayered background just for something a little different to the norm.  Now, I haven't used my brayer for ages so it took a bit of getting used to again as I practiced and practiced on my glossy cardstock.  With the help of my blogging friend Shaz's brayer instructions/tips (from her blog Calligraphy Cards - Shaz in Oz), I managed to tame the brayer beast enough to be happy enough with what I achieved.  And I hardly made any mess which is a first for me as when I have brayered in the past, I have had ink everywhere and just got so frustrated and annoyed with myself.  I think perhaps that learning the right technique has had a lot to do with it.  I do LOVE the look of brayered backgrounds and I should use the technique more often now that I have a little more confidence - thanks Shaz :-) 

 

The Inkadinkado Silhouettes stamp set that I used for the trees and the Santa plus sleigh is RETIRED but Inkadinkado have a different Silhouette set which would suffice HERE (my link goes to 123 Stitch in the USA who I have been buying from for several years - they are fantastic!).  Visible Image Stamps (from the UK) have a Sleigh Silhouette stamp HERE (I have bought from them before but not for a couple of years).  And lastly, Impression Obsession have a Santa and sleigh die HERE (this is an Aussie store as an example who I buy from alot - also fantastic - but if you are not in Australia, you should easily be able to buy this die from elsewhere).  There are tons of brands of tree stamps around so I won't bother listing any as you should be able to find a similar tree somewhere - plus you could even use a tree die instead.

The ink that I used for the brayered blue background is by Kaleidacolor - Blue Breeze - and as you can see, I went from dark blue at the top to light blue at the bottom.  For some reason, the photo looks a bit patchy on my blog post but the photo I am using from my laptop has the colour graduation super-smooth - weird - although I did use a different photo editing program as the LCD screen on our main home computer failed yesterday and I don't have the same editing program on my laptop. 

I stamped the trees using Stazon Jet Black and stamped some without re-inking to give the impression of depth.  The Santa and Sleigh Silhouette was also stamped with Jet Black ink and I practiced on a few scrap pieces of glossy cardstock beforehand because the stamp slips very easily when you stamp it on this particular type of cardstock which will blur the image and spoil it.  I diecut a small circle of glossy cardstock for the moon and sponged on some Colorbox Bisque (yellow) chalk ink with a sponge then stamped part of the silhouette image on the moon and simply glued the circle to the background matching up the reindeer.  I have found this method works better for me than masking off a circle for the moon and then brayering over the top as I would always end up with ragged edges on the moon and I just didn't like how it looked.  Either that or the ink would soak through the mask which would ruin the whole effect :-(  The method I use is far simpler and waaaay easier.

Once the trees were dry, I rubbed my Anti-Static pad over the bottom of the trees and stamped my sentiment using Versamark Watermark ink and heat-set it using White Detail embossing powder.  Whilst it was still hot, I poured on Bubble Fizz fine glitter and then heat-set it again - but you have to be careful not to overheat the embossing or it will go flat.

I used a finger dauber and Ranger Picket Fence (white) Crackle Distress Paint to sponge around the edges of my image panel to give the impression of cold, snowy conditions.  The white dots of snow on the trees were done with a Uniball Signo White pen which I picked up from my local newsagent.

Here is a close-up of the reindeer:

Did you notice the tiny little red nose?  No?  Click on the image to see a bigger view.  See it now?   I didn't have a rhinestone or pearl tiny enough so I used my Ruby Red Liquid Pearls.  Again, I practiced on a scrap piece of glossy cardstock so I knew how much to squeeze the bottle to get a tiny little dot.   It is hard to tell in the photo but I went around the edge of the main panel with Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue then popped the panel up on dimensionals.

The designer papers are by Lili of the Valley (UK) from their Frosty pad.  I again used Picket Fence paint around the edges of the base panel.  The side panel was punched using an EK Success Scalloped Scallops border punch.   All the layers were trimmed to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools.

The white organza ribbon was attached in a separate elements and the bow itself was made using my Bow Easy which was glued on using Fabric Glue.  I added Fray Stop to the cut ends to stop them from fraying.

I didn't really want to do too much embellishing as is my usual style and thought just adding the 3 diecut My Favorite Things Snowflakes was enough.  I only glued down the centres using Tombow Mono glue and bent the points up a little.  I added a light blue Kaisercraft rhinestone to the centres.

Challenges:

Apart from the SCS Fan Club Challenge, I am entering my card in the following challenge -

My Creative Moments - October Wordplay Challenge of 'Anything'.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Inkadinkado Silhouettes #97289 (RETIRED), Sentiment - Crafty Kids (now Kaszazz) 113K

Ink:  Kaleidacolor Blue Breeze dye, Versamark Watermark, Stazon Jet Black, Colorbox Chalk Bisque

Designer Paper:  Lili of the Valley (UK) Frosty - 8" x 8" pad

Accessories:  Glossy cardstock, brayer, Perfect Layers Tools, Ruby Red Liquid Pearls, 3/8" or 10mm wide white organza ribbon, Bow Easy, Fray Stop, finger dauber, sponge, Uniball Signo White pen UM-120AC, Alison Ellis Design White Detail embossing powder, Alison Ellis Design Bubble Fizz fine glitter, Anti-Static pad, Big Shot, Lifestyle Nesting circle die, MFT Die-namics Snowflake die (I used the smallest one from the Snowflake Trio set), Ranger Picket Fence Crackle Distress Paint, Kindyglitz Crystalina glitter glue, Kaisercraft light blue rhinestones SB774, dimensionals, heat-gun, fabric glue, Tombow Mono glue

Punches:  EK Success Scalloped Scallops border