Backgrounds 3 - Vintage Christmas

My romanticized ideal of what Christmas should be like was formed from two influences.  One is the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and one from the many years we spent with our daughters in ballet and dancing in The Nutcracker every year.

It involves beautifully rich decor, Victorian costumes, sugar plums and hearts changed from stone to flesh!

Families get together and party, gifts are exchanged, and a soft snow falls.  I know it never turns out that way, but that's the way my imagination rolls!





For my last background technique, I wanted to do the Faux Patina technique and I imagined it on a vintage Chrismas card.

• I'm a little sad, because the photos just don't do the card justice.  It looks so richly vintage in real life and somehow, the lighting and photo didn't pull that off.
• The faux patina background definitely adds to the vintage feel of the card.  I used a variety of inks sponged on to create that effect.  Here's a similar panel without the foreground:

• You start by adding some Crumb Cake in to underneath the top of the Beautifully Baroque embossing folder.  I used a brayer to accomplish that.  Then you add your Very Vanilla cardstock and run it through the Big Shot.
• You then sponge on your inks starting with the lightest colours and ending with the darkest.  I wanted to go for a red and gold design, so I started with Rose Red, then Old Olive, then Cherry Cobbler and finally Early Espresso.
• Dry your ink with the lower setting on the Heat Tool, and then rub over the paper with your Embossing Buddy to make sure that all the ink is dried up.
• I lightly applied (I could have been much lighter) VersaMark by rubbing (lightly) the pad (lightly) over the cardstock.  (The first time I did it, I was much too heavy handed and the whole paper was covered in gold embossing powder.)
• Apply the Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and heat set it with the Stampin' Up Heat Tool.

• To keep the card vintage looking I stamped the tree from the Special Season stamp set in just one color, Old Olive.  The greeting from the same set is stamped in Cherry Cobbler.  I worked the end of the flag with the bone folder until the paper plies separated and curled each ply separately.
• Baked Brown Sugar Ruffle Stretch Trim added the perfect touch, as did two Vintage Trinkets brads.

My Technique Night classes will be very busy trying these three background techniques this week!  Thanks for dropping by!

Stamps:  Special (w131766); c131769)

Paper:  Old Olive (100702) and Very Vanilla (101650) card stock; Watercolour Paper (122959)

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Crumb Cake (126975), Rose Red (126954), Old Olive (126953), Cherry Cobbler (126966) and Early Espresso (126974); VersaMark (102283)

Accessories:  Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (109129); Vintage Trinkets (118764); 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim in Baked Brown Sugar (130022)

Tools:  Beautifully Baroque Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (130917); Brayer (102395); Heat Tool (129053); Embossing Buddy (103083); Stamping Sponges (101610); Ovals Collection Framelits (129381)

Beautifully Baroque Embossing Folder

Heat Tool

Ovals Collection Framelits

Special Season Stamp Set

Stampin' Sponges

Versamark Ink

Vintage Trinkets

ASYI Challenge 003 Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera

Oh, dear,  now I will be aging myself!  How many of you have ever seen an old musical called "The King and I", starring Yul Brenner and Deborah Kerr?  It was actually filmed when I was only four years old, but my parents had an old 78 record with the sound track, so I knew all the songs well as a child.  I finally saw the movie when I was older, but it has some memorable songs like I Whistle a Happy Tune, Shall We Dance and Hello, Young Lovers.


The movie tells the story of King Mongkut of Siam (Thailand) who seeks to modernize his country and create ties with Western nations.  He hires a Welsh widow, Anna Leonowens to teach his many children and wives English and modern science and European manners.

Anna uses the term "etcetera" and the King wants to know its meaning.  He then makes it his own and uses it at every possible occasion, "Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!"  (Check out the link above at 16:32 and 48:10).

My card today uses a piece of DSP from the Etcetera collection, and of course it triggered that memory.

• Like the DSP, the palette is Night of Navy, Soft Sky, Baked Brown Sugar and Very Vanilla, with a little splash of Calypso Coral.  It takes a little getting used to, but I like how it worked on this card.
• The background image is printed right on the DSP.  The stamp sets I used are Stippled Blossoms for the floral design on the front panel, and A Dozen Thoughts for the sentiment.
• I masked the sentiment with a Post It Note as I was stamping the flowers in Baked Brown Sugar.  It's hard to see in the photo, but I also stamped over the flowers with the same stamp inked with the Illuminate Stamp Pad for some shimmer.

I created this for  As You See It Challenge 003.

• I used the Envelope Punch Board to round three of the corners of my top panel.  Works like a charm!
• The Top Note Bigz die creates the backing to the top panel with a Tea Lace Paper Doily just peaking out from behind.
• Some Calypso Coral Chevron Ribbon fastened with an Antique Brad adds a nice accent.  The whole card has a very damask look to it.

If you've done the math and figured out how old I am, good for you. Now go ahead and enjoy your weekend, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!

Don't forget, I'm giving away Blog Candy.  You have until Saturday at 8 pm PDT to leave a comment on my blog on this post, to get your name entered in the draw.

Stamps:  Stippled Blossoms (w132076; c126747); A Dozen Thoughts (w131056; c131059)

Paper:  Etcetera Designer Series Paper (130129); Night of Navy (100867), Soft Sky (131203) and Very Vanilla (101650) cardstock

Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Baked Brown Sugar (131174); Illuminate Glimmer Watermark Stampin' Pad (126857)

Accessories:  Calypso Coral Chevron Ribbon (130018); Antique Brads (117273); Tea Lace Paper Doilies (129399)

Tools:  Big Shot (113439); Top Note Bigz Die (113463); Envelope Punch Board (133774)

I Tried!

I had great plans of writing some posts here in Orlando while I'm at Leadership Conference and showing you my swap cards, but using my tablet, I just cannot get Blogger to upload the photos, no matter what I try.  Sigh!  Oh well, at least we're having wonderful weather to feel sorry in!  Back home they have meters of snow, and an Arctic front on the way!  Hope it's all done by the time we have to return!                                                                                                     In the meantime, I wanted to remind you about my amazing BLOG CANDY giveaway here.            Only  a few more days to post a comment until I am back to do the draw.  Hope to hear from you!