Nearly Christmas, just saying

Firstly, I would like to thank My Favourite Things for inviting me to be a Guest Designer this month, I was over the moon when they asked me and was thrilled to be given the chance to play with some of the November release.

This particular card was such fun to make and I have to giggle when I look at the snowflake, you'll understand why later on in the post.

I thought you'd like to know how I set about making this card:

Lets start with the background - this was achieved with a Copic airbrush, using a mixture of G000, RV00 and B01.  I then added white dots with a gel pen to compliment the Snowfall of Blessings sentiment that I stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with superfine white embossing powder.

It was then time to turn my attention to the centre panel.  Initially I stamped various Simply Snowflakes on a piece of smooth card with Versamark ink and embossed it as above.  Colour was added using very pale Copic markers G0000, B0000, RV0000 - just make sure you've cleaned off any dusting or embossing powder from your cardstock or it could damage the nibs of your markers - as you can see it gives you a very soft mottled background.  The oval was cut out using Dienamics Pierced Oval Stax.

Now, this is where I start to chuckle as I got in a bit of a pickle with my first idea for the focal point on this card.  Initially I cut several Stylish Snowflakes out of shrink plastic, blasting them with my heat gun.  Ha ha, as I found out, after several attempts, fiddly die cuts don't shrink very well.......lets just say I ended up with some very strange looking shrunken blobs wrapped around the tweezers I was using to hold them - I made a right mess!!  So I abandoned that plan and cut a single snowflake from matt shrink plastic, which gave the die cut more rigidity than acetate or vellum would and carefully coloured it with the same Copic markers as above - the matt surface made this really easy to do.  A little sparkle was added courtesy of Clear Wink of Stella, a sequin and a dot of pearl paint.  

Finally I mounted it all on an A2 white card, using small foam pads under the central snowflake to make it stand out.

Ta da, a clean and simple Christmas card with a touch of sparkle!

Thank you for dropping by and I will be back in a few days with another card using 

My Favourite Things.