A krafty blue deer

Majda has chosen blue, white and kraft for her colour pick on 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.

I usually struggle to use kraft card, and end up die cutting it. This time I went for a different approach and used the kraft as my base.

Starting with two pieces (in case one went wrong), I stamped across each in gesso, using a wooden tree stamp I bought second hand.

 

I added a moon with gesso on a sponge, masking the trees. I used two different sizes of moon mask to see how they looked.

 

For the blue, I dabbed distress oxides out onto my craft mat - broken china, faded jeans and chipped sapphire. I spritzed then swooshed the top of the card through.

I wiped the ink off the moon.

When they dried, I stamped a holly deer from Clarity onto each in versamark, and heat embossed in white. The different sized moons meant I had to position one higher and one lower for them to look right.

At this point I wasn't sure I liked them, they didn't have the feel I'd anticipated. However, when I cut them down to size (17x11.9cm for a 5x7 card blank) they came together somehow.

I framed each with a snowflake border wooden stamp. I mixed the gesso and heat embossing for a less uniform look.

I decided for the sentiment to use a blue drop shadow behind white embossing. Should be easy! However, I couldn't get the cobalt archival ink to dry - it must have been the surface. So the embossing powder stuck to my drop shadow as well as to the versamark. I brushed it off and tried heating to dry it, then left it overnight, then used my antistatic bag (which to be fair is nearly empty). In the end I had to leave it for a day then smother it in talcum powder to get the powder just where I wanted it.

To finish, I edged in the cobalt archival and mounted on the card blank.

 

These have ended up with a delicacy that I think is pretty, and are quite atmospheric. I don't often make scenes, this is the closest I get!

To join in with our colour challenge, head to the 5CCT blog. This challenge is open until Friday 16th October.