Hello fellow makers! Today I’m sharing a card I created for the ScrappyShak Design Team with the new Tim Holtz Holiday Brushstroke #3 die set. I know… how many poinsettia dies do I need? Well, whatever you already have plus one more! I love the artsy brushstroke design of this one, and it goes together so easily. The greens that are included are beautiful. You don’t even have to use the layering pieces if you are short on time or want to simplify your card. Just start with an interesting piece of paper colored with multiple inks, and that will give you a beautiful result as well as the layers will.
I started by coloring my flowers. At first I thought about going with more subdued pinks. I die cut the flower die out of watercolor paper, and colored the base of the flower with Distress Oxide Spray in Spun Sugar. Then I saw my new Mica Sprays… so much for a subdued color scheme! Cocktail Party Mica Stain spray was calling to me! It’s such a pretty, sparkly pink! All of the layering pieces were still left in my cardstock piece that I had die cut, so I popped out the center flower piece (which would be sprayed with Harvest Moon Mica Spray) and sprayed the little layering pieces while they were still in the piece of cardstock I ran through my machine. This held them in place while I sprayed (see photo) and dried them with my heat tool. I popped them out when they were mostly dry, and layered them onto the flower base. I then splattered my flower (without the yellow center) with more Cocktail Party.
Do you ever get into “the zone” when you’re making? I can get so focused on what I’m doing, I lose track of time, what’s going on around me, and what I’m supposed to be doing… like taking photos of my process! Sorry! As I said, this flower is an easy one to put together, so the photos wouldn’t have been super interesting anyways! The one thing that I did play around with was how to get some sparkle on my flower. First I experimented with Distress Glitter, but I didn’t like the mess. I tried some on a scrap piece of paper, using collage medium to adhere the glitter. I thought about using clear embossing powder over that, but again, thought through the mess and decided not to. My next thought was to use some transparent texture paste, and mix in some glitter. Then I realized I already had a product just like that – the Distress Snowfall Grit Paste! Okay, problem solved. I added a light coat of the snowfall grit paste over the top of my flower with a palette knife, and set it aside to dry. I also used my fingers to move it around a little, and then used my die pick to get it out of the holes in the petals.
TIP: One thing to be aware of is that the Distress Inks, Oxides, and Mica Sprays will react when they get wet, even with the grit paste. You need to be careful how you apply the grit paste so that you don’t make your colors run together. I got a little yellow from the flower center onto the pink, and vice versa, but I was able to mostly wipe it away and fix it. It’s not a bad look, just not what I was going for.
Now on to the foliage… I picked some greens that I thought went together and complimented the pinks… Forest Moss and Bundled Sage Distress Inks, and Fresh Balsam Mica Stain. I colored different pieces of watercolor cardstock with each one of them, and splattered the Mica Stain on the Bundled Sage and Forest Moss pieces. I diecut the leaves out of the Fresh Balsam and Bundled Sage. I used the Forest Moss piece for the evergreen looking dies. I found a small piece of white textured paper in my stash that I thought would be prefect for the little berries. By the way, there’s no real guide as to where to place the berries on the die cut that is shown on the packaging. There aren’t any score lines or anything. Just wing it. I even scattered some of the berries on my final card front.
I went with tone on tone for the background. I started by coloring a piece of watercolor paper with Distress Ink in Old Paper. I smooshed some ink onto my craft mat, spritzed with water, swiped, dried, pounced, dried, etc. They I used two of the large stamps from the Stamper’s Anonymous Festive Collage set. I put them both in my Misti, side by side, and stamped at one time onto my background. You could of course use any combination of stamps to achieve the same look. I just wanted some more interest for the background. I cut the background down to 4 x 5.25 inches, and applied a bit of Vintage Photo around the edges.
After playing with my arrangement for what seemed like HOURS, I was happy enough with it to start finishing my card. Before I glued anything down, I added a sentiment from Stamper’s Anonymous Holiday Sketchbook, using Forest Moss Distress Ink. I wanted to emboss the sentiment, but I didn’t have an Oxide ink pad in Forest Moss. Instead, I used my Misti, stamping first in Forest Moss Distress Ink, then cleaned the stamp and stamped in VersaMark so the clear embossing powder would stick. I used some foam behind the Poinsettias, and added some of the small berries around my floral arrangement. Lastly, I attached my card front to an A2 sized base made from Distress Kraft Heavystock.
I hope you enjoyed my card, and that you got some ideas or learned something. Thanks for stopping by my blog! Please head on over to ScrappyShak to pick up your supplies!
Products used, available at ScrappyShak:
Tim Holtz Sizzix Holiday Brushstroke #3 dies
Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Festive Collage Stamps
Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Holiday Sketchbook Stamps
Distress Ink Pads – Bundled Sage, Forest Moss, Old Paper
Distress Oxide Spray – Spun Sugar
Distress Mica Stain Spray – Cocktail Party Holiday Set 4, Harvest Moon Halloween Set 3, Fresh Balsam Holiday Set 3
Distress Grit Paste Snowfall
Misti Stamping Tool
Vicki Fedor 