Faux lace

Goga is our March host at the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. As always, we kick off with a sketch.

I felt like getting inky for this one! I wanted to make the banner (green in the sketch) translucent or lacey, I had to think for a while how I wanted to do it!

I started by blending ink over my card - distress oxides in Victorian velvet and hickory smoke. I then sponged ink through a snowflake stencil, in the same colours.

I cut a mask for the banner from copy paper, with a knife so I had the outer and inner.

I used the inner first, and stamped across the card (cut to size for a 5x7 card blank), using the same inks and a journal stamp, a fancy swirl, and "Let it Snow" sentiment.

Time to swap the mask for the outer. I stamped snowflakes with versamark, and heat embossed in white.

Using an embossing pen and ruler, I went round the edge of the banner then heat embossed in white again. I went over it twice to get the coverage.

I really like the effect, a faux snowflake lace layer over the card.

I got a bit stuck on how to add the other elements of the sketch. I had offcuts of the background to use. I stamped a heart frame, which came with a matching die to cut it out.

I stamped and cut another piece, but after playing with it and cutting it various ways, gave up as it just didn't fit.

In the end I stamped directly onto the card with the "Let it Snow" sentiment, and heat embossed. Where it went over the previous embossing, it got lost. I went around with an inktense pencil and water pen first, then a grey drawing pen, to try to define it. It worked, but is a little inelegant. If I'd planned this upfront I'd have avoided the embossing under the sentiment, but hey ho!

The heart was a little empty, and I didn't want another sentiment, so I used a tiny bauble stamp to add a little something.

I put it together, then added the little touches that finish it but also take a lot longer than you expect! I edged with the hickory smoke and inktense pencil, and added pencil drop shadow around the heart. I used the grey pen around the banner to give dimension.

I love the pretty, French feel to this card. The background stamps work beautifully together - this swirl is one I've had for ages but tend to forget about.

The colours are lovely and soft - maybe not Christmassy, or even snowy, but I really like them.

 

 

 

Please do head over to the 52CCT blog, to see the wonderful ideas from my DT colleagues, and to share your card inspired by our sketch. The challenge is open for a week, until Friday 12th March.