Happy Holidays – Mixed Media Christmas Card

Hello Crafty Friends!  I have another class project to share with you today.  This is the 9th class I have taken at this level so there is only one more left to do!  This class was Celebration: Stencil Techniques and the instructor was Laurel Beard. Stencils are becoming so popular these days but I have been using them for mixed media for quite a while and even before that, for stencilling images on my walls – that was quite a thing in home decor for a while!  Links to all my class posts are at the bottom of the post.

Inspiration

This class was all about different ways to use stencils in your cardmaking.  I decided to use a dry embossing technique and also a variation on embossing paste through a stencil to add some texture.  Since I had just made another Christmas card, and “Tis the season” for making them, I decided to make another Christmas Card but not very traditional.

Overview of my card process

I decided to make this card a square one, so I made my cardbase from Neenah by cutting it in half to give me a 5.5 x 11 inch piece, which I scored and folded to give me a top folding 5.5 inch square card.  I also cut a 5.5 x 5.5 inch square piece of lighter white cardstock for the panel I was going to work on.

One of my favourite stencils is the Altenew Leaf Burst stencil as I find it so versatile and I thought with the right colours I could make it look wintery or even a bit like a snowflake.  I also decided to use the Altenew Halftone Dots stencil to dry emboss on the cardstock as it reminds me of snowballs!  I ran the cardstock and Halftone stencil through my die cutting machine with the embossing mat underneath and it worked really well to give that raised embossed pattern on the card.

Next, I chose two colours of Nuvo Glimmer Paste – which is a kind of glittery embossing paste and a little translucent – and used a palette knife to spread the colours (Moonstone and Blue Topaz) through the Leaf Burst stencil and smeared them together so the colours would blend and give a gradient effect.  It gives a really beautiful effect and it doesn’t take long to do.  Since I had all the supplies out already, I made another background using different colours of glimmer paste, which you can see on the right.  I will use this for another card later on.

Meanwhile I took the “happy” word from Altenew Script Words 2 die set and cut it out from white cardstock and embossed it with an embossing powder from Ranger called Teal Tinsel.  It was the closest match I could find to make the stencilled leaf.  Then I matched up some Gina K cardstock with the leaf and the heat embossed word, and cut out a little banner, which I then heat embossed with the “holidays” stamp from the Mega Greetings 2 stamp set and Ranger fine white embossing powder.

Once I had all my elements prepared, I adhered them to the stencilled background and then adhered the background to the card base and my card was finished!  Here’s a close-up of the texture on the card.

Thoughts

I enjoyed this class and it made me think about stencils in different ways and showed lots of possibilities.  I’m happy with my card and I think I might use this idea for some of my holiday cards this year. 🙂

PROJECT RECIPE:

Altenew – Script Words 2 Die set – happy, Leaf Burst Stencil, Halftone Dots Stencil, Mega Greetings 2 – holidays,
Neenah 110lb white cardstock
Wow – embossing ink
Ranger – Teal Tinsel embossing powder, fine white embossing powder
Nuvo – Deluxe Adhesive, Glimmer Paste – Moonstone, Blue Topaz
From stash/other: other smooth white cardstock

FYI Here’s a list of the Classes for Level 1:

.All About Layering 1
.All About Layering 2
.Clean & Simple Boutique Cards
.Easy Ink Blending Techniques
.For The Guys
.Let It Shine
.Celebration: Stencil Techniques You are here
.Seasonal Scene Building
.Easy Die Cutting Techniques
.Irresistible Inking Techniques