Feeling blue

It's a colour challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week - shades of blue, white and silver.

My card is based on a canvas that Kay from IndigoBlu demonstrated on Hochanda not long ago. It was so pretty! It wasn't Christmassy, so I've replaced roses with snowflakes, and I've simplified it a lot for a smaller card, but the basic idea is there.

I started by dry brushing my card with blue acrylic paints. They ranged from a dark marine to a pearl ice blue, which gave a lovely shimmer.

My first attempt was very heavy handed, and not that dry, so I had another bash.

Much better, more delicate. But the first one won't go to waste.

I then stamped a strip of snowflakes (using the Clarity snowflake set) across the middle of the card. I used gesso at first, following Kay's demonstration.

This was more subtle than I wanted - maybe due to using card, maybe a different brand of gesso, maybe technique! So I added another layer using versa mark and white embossing powder.

Better!

For the sentiment, I started by stamping in white pigment ink on plain stencil card, using the snowflakes again.

This gave a bit of subtle interest in the background.

This was meant to be how I met my stash challenge - I used stazon white ink the first time, which I got ages ago in a charity shop. But the solvent in the ink picked up the indexing, or old ink, from the stamps, however much I cleaned them, so it gave a dirty finish. So I think I've failed that challenge this week.

I stamped the three words from a "Let It Snow" Clarity stamp, but masked them to separate them out. I used versa mark, then heat embossed with a navy Wow powder.

I cut out each word separately, and edged each one with a blue sharpie. I then went back and added faux stitching with a faded jeans distress marker.

Going back to my painted card, I used the two narrow strips I'd practised on, and die cut snowflakes using Tattered Lace dies.

How ridiculously pretty are these? I have loads of the card left so will be cutting more to use elsewhere.

As they don't stand out from the background that much (being the same pattern!) I cut more snowflakes from hint of silver Centura Pearl card, and used them as a drop shadow behind.

I created a matt for the card, by painting another piece of stencil card with one of the paints I'd used originally (cobalt blue), then brushed the pearl ice blue over it.

I edged the background piece with a navy sharpie, to give it definition, and added some spots of white acrylic, deliberately messy, for more interest.

The die cut snowflakes went behind the sentiment words, to form a bit of a frame for them. These were attached with foam pads for dimension. I mounted the whole onto a 5x7 card base.

There are things I'd do differently if making this again - I'd try and make the die cut snowflakes stand out a bit more, and Kay used a lovely technique of stamping with the corner of an acrylic block, which I forgot about until writing this up!

But the overall effect is very pretty and delicate, I'm pleased with how it looks.