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

Simple and Shiny!

The first day of VBS went very well for the first day!  Not many kinks to work out and the kids all had a great time!  So did I, despite having to talk very fast, for 2 hours straight!  Not to the same group of kids for all that time, you'll be happy to hear for the kids' sakes! There were about 10 groups that came by, two groups at a time, for 20 minutes each.




After I got my order ready for delivery, I set to work to do a challenge card, keeping in mind that I have a very full Christmas Stamper's Dozen on Thursday to prepare for.  I did The Paper Players Challenge #159, which was a real challenge for me:  a one-layer card!!  I'm really working on my clean and simple skills these days, but I'm enjoying the process.

I used a new stamp set for this one called Special Season.  Here's how it turned out:

• I stamped the tree image from Special Season in Versamark Ink and embossed it in White Stampin' Emboss Powder, along with the sentiment from that same set.  It's really hard to see in this photo, but where the little ornaments on the tree are, I used the Two Way Glue Pen on them and then sprinkled it with Dazzling Diamonds glitter, shaking off the excess.  It's really shiny in real life!
• I added some accent Rhinestones Basic Jewels.  They show up so well against the Midnight Muse card base.
• And....that's it!  Short and sweet!  How 'bout that?

• You can just catch a glimpse of the glittering ornaments on the tree in this shot.

And now, I think I'll head to bed, and try to get a good night's sleep so I can be full of energy for tomorrow's VBS session! (You are actually reading this in the morning, but I write it the night before and I have had to correct more than one string of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's as I fell asleep typing my post.) 

Stamp Set:  Special Season Stamp Set (w131766; c131769)

Paper:  Midnight Muse Cardstock (126843)

Ink:  VersaMark (102283)

Accessories:  White Stampin' Emboss Powder (109132); Dazzling Diamonds Stampin' Glitter (102023)

Rhinestone Basic Jewels (119246)

Tools:  Heat Tool (129053); Two Way Glue Pen (100425), Embossing Buddy (103083)

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

Special Season Stamp Set

Heat Tool

Versa Mark Ink Pad

White Stampin' Emboss Powder