Hey crafty friends, it's time for another Christmas creation. I'll be sharing as many as I can this week, as time just seems to speed up the closer we get to Christmas! I don't always get many Christmas creations sent out, but this year has been such a difficult one for so many and I think now, more than ever, we need to reach out to each other with encouragement and happy thoughts, so I'll be sending as many cards as I can this year. I won't promise they'll all be Christmas cards though! I just won't have created enough, so they'll be 'thinking of you' cards instead. I've decided getting caught up on the little details is not going to work for me this year, so I'm just going with the flow and if you get a 'non' Christmas card from me, it's because I was thinking of you, Christmas or not! But I will try, as much as possible to create for Christmas, so here is my latest Christmas creation.
I've created this with a fabulous Whimsy Stamps multi-aperture die which reminded me so much of those traditional English sash windows, that I loved so much when we lived in the UK. I love old movies that depict these with fallen snow resting on each tier. So I created this shaker card to emulate that. I had to divide each little aperture with dimensional foam, so that the shaker elements didn't fall all the way to the bottom of the card, but gathered and rested like fallen snow on each little window frame base.
I used a bespoke mix of shaker elements for this. I combined some larger rough glitter, Twinklets Diamond Dust, with some sweet little star shaped iridescent sequins and finally three in each little aperture of the larger iridescent gemstones, to aid movement and make a great shaky sound. This will of course be perfect for any little person, or an older person who still gets caught up in the magic of Christmas. I ink blended the background with distress ink, which I then splattered with water and some iridescent shimmer. Once that was dry, I dusted the background with anti-static powder and stamped the trees in white on the lower left corner. I then added Santa in his sleigh and his reindeer up in the top right corner, which I used copper embossing powder to emboss. I actually added some sparkles behind the sleigh using a stamp from the same set, but used Versamark Ink and Sparkle Embossing Powder, so it's only just showing below the window pane as most of it is behind the shaker elements. Easier to see of course when the shaker elements are moving around.
The final touch was to add the sentiment, which I did very carefully, as it was a tiny canvas to work on! But it fit perfectly. I used Versafine Ink to ensure it stamped perfectly first time and didn't splodge out the sides. I find this ink is brilliant for getting crisp clear first impressions. I'd use it for everything if it was alcohol ink safe, but alas not, so I use it primarily for sentiments or images that won't need colouring with alcohol ink. This card looks plainer from the front, but you have to peek through the window to the scene behind, that's where the magic is. I showed hubby and he said straight away, it's a sash window with a scene behind, so I was satisfied I'd achieved the result I was aiming for. It would have been cute to finish off with a tiny sleeping mouse in the bottom right corner, but I'm still hunting my stash to find an image that works. I'll update if I do, for now, it's done.
I'll be back again with another crafty adventure soon. I wish you a wonderful December and lead up to Christmas. I hope you're able to share some special time with family and friends and think of all our friends who are missing special people at this time. Hugs to you all but sending a special thought and extra big hugs to my Swedish bestie who is celebrating her 50th birthday today! We ought to be sharing a glögg together, but will save this for a future year when the world is a little less on fire xoxo
Twinklets - out of stock
Frantage Shaved Ice is a good substitute.
I cherry picked the little gemstones out of this mix
for each of the window apertures.
Comments
xxx
Stay safe
Blessings
Maxine