I know, I know! I should be showcasing all the great stuff I have from the new Occasions catalogue. Tomorrow, I promise. But when I saw the sketch for the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge 215, a Christmas design popped into my head and the idea intrigued me so much that I had to go with it. I wanted to do a bit of a take on Hark, the Herald Angels Sing bringing Glad Tidings of great joy!
Take a look at the simple sketch by Jen Mitchell for Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #215:
This weekend, we were down in Vancouver, seeing the stage production of It's a Wonderful Life, with some friends of ours. On the long drive home, I started designing my Monday blog post sample in my head. When I saw the sketch for FMS, I immediately thought of a medieval castle with the herald blowing the bugle or horn to announce the Christmas feast. I imagined rich purples and golds and here's what happened:
- This looks fairly straightforward, but it wasn't. First I had to get three sizes of the banners to fit inside each other. I started out using the Banner Triple Punch, but I couldn't get the sizes I wanted so I went to the Banner Framelits, but even that required cutting the smallest one the same size as the middle one with the same framelit, and then trimming a bit off each side.
- Then I had to find a stamp that looked regal and medieval enough but fit inside the smallest Whisper White banner. The Noel image from Antique Tags fit the bill perfectly.
- I had to draw a trumpet or bugle or whatever they were called back then on the back of a piece of a Gold Foil Sheet and then fussy cut it carefully.
- I made tassels from some Gold Cording Trim (I am going to really miss this stuff when it retires!) and that was a bit fiddly, but it really added to the look.
- I originally stamped the Glad Tidings sentiment from Antique Tags on Rich Razzleberry and embossed it in Gold Stampin' Emboss powder, but it just didn't show up well enough. I didn't want to get rid of the Rich Razzleberry altogether, so I embossed the sentiment on a piece of Whisper White, punched it out as I did the original, with the Washi Label Punch, but then trimmed it right to the embossed line and glued it over the original sentiment on the Rich Razzleberry, which formed a narrow border around the edges.
This is a photo from the play, It's a Wonderful Life, that we went to see at the Granville Island Stage, and I must confess, that even though I have seen this movie almost every Christmas in the last 10 years, this production had me crying like a baby at the ending. It was very well done, and here's the amazing part: the actor who played the lead role of George Bailey, was hospitalized with appendicitis last week and there was no understudy. They managed to get an actor who had played the role eight years ago (EIGHT YEARS) to take his place and he had to go onstage with little to no rehearsal. I would be absolutely terrified! He had to take the script on stage with him, which was completely understandable, but he was such a good actor that you forgot all about the script and got totally wrapped up in the production. The replacement actor was Todd Talbot who stars in Love It or List It Vancouver. I was very impressed by his skills!
While there we got in a quick visit with daughter Erin and her husband, Jonny, and our little grandson Wyatt, who is just a delight at 2 1/2 years old. He is talking a blue streak now and he has the biggest smile ever. As we left, he wanted a group hug, and laughed with delight when everyone snuggled together!
Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!
