Musical Christmas

It's been a busy couple of days.  Hubby has been sick with the flu and is just starting to feel better today - thank goodness!  I've been prepping for a workshop I'm holding this coming Sunday.  Really excited to have the Dragon Boat ladies back in the studio.  I call them that as they are all on a Dragon Boat team with my friend, Frances, and she was the one that invited them to learn about stamping.  I'm so excited to show them how to create their own designer paper with sponging, plus paper piecing and watercolor spritz techniques.  It's going to be a full afternoon!

Last night I had an idea pop into my head for a Christmas card.  Couldn't wait to get into the studio today to try it out.  I found sheet music on the internet and printed it out (very, very small) for the main image of my card.  I also used a free digital image of a beautiful poinsettia from Beccy Muir (click here to check out her website - Beccy's Place).  I used the paper tole technique on the poinsettia and painted the leaves with glitter glue to add sparkle (see close-up photo for more detail).  Hope you like.

"Musical Christmas"

Stamps:  Bliss (SU!); Poinsettia (Beccy's Place); Sheet Music - computer generated

Paper:  Always Artichoke, Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White (SU!)

Ink:  Always Artichoke, Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler, Soft Suede (SU!)

Accessories & Tools:  sponges, small paint brush, red and green glitter glue, three mini half-pearls, gold rickrack, red & gold wired ribbon, violin charm, distressing tool, sticky strips, glue, glue dots and dimensionals

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I stamped the large stamp from the Bliss set in Wild Wasbi ink onto a large piece of Wild Wasabi cardstock.  I sponged randomly on the page and along all the edges with Always Artichoke ink to give it an aged look.  I wrapped a piece of thick red and gold ribbon around the background Wild Wasabi cardstock and secured it at the back.  I used sticky strips to secured the background panel to the card base of Always Artichoke.

I printed the sheet music and three poinsettias from my computer onto Whisper White cardstock.  I cut out the music and then ripped along the edge to give it a distressed look.  I sponged Soft Suede ink over the music and long the ripped edges.  I cut out a piece of Cherry Cobbler cardstock slightly larger than the sheet music and roughed up the edges with a distressing tool.  I mounted the sheet music onto the Cherry Cobbler frame.  I mounted it to the front of the card, popping it up with dimensionals to add depth.

I sponged two of the poinsettias with Cherry Cobbler ink and the third with Always Artichoke ink.  Using a small paint brush, I covered the red poinsettias with red glitter glue; I covered the green poinsettia with green glitter glue.  I let them dry thoroughly.  I cut out one of the red poinsettias and used that as the base. 

With the second red poinsettia, I only cut out the three top layer of leaves and layered those onto my base using rolled up glue dots (paper tole technique).  I cut out the larger leaves from the green glitter poinsettia and glued them to the back of my red poinsettia.  I added three mini half-pearls to the center of the flower and then secured two pieces of gold rickrack to the back so that they hung down past the flower.  I then mounted the poinsettia to the front of the card at the bottom left-hand corner of the sheet music, popping it up with dimensionals to add depth.

I glued two small pieces of gold rickrack to the top right-hand corner of the sheet music and used glue dots to secure the violin charm on top.