Christmas Card Club - Stencils

It's that time again when a group of card makers share Christmas Cards with a theme that one of the members has chosen. For Challenge 7 this week, Carol of CM Design selected  stencil or embossing folder. MoJo has been very scarce lately, but I decided to play with some Lindy's Magicals mica powder and Brusho-s and see what I could manage. Got some interesting backgrounds, tried using stencils with glass gel bead paste, that had been colored with a gold acrylic paint and some of the Colorburst Metallic gold. Word of advice: Mix up more colored paste than you think you will need!

Here goes with 3 cards and I'll tell you what's wrong with each of them. These would have worked great in Darnell's April Fool Boo-Boo contest! (Hang in there, as I did finally get a card done that wasn't quite so wonky looking as the first 3! LOL)

 

The red & green magicals & red & green brusho crystals were dropped into wells on a plastic palette, used a dropper to add water. The magicals were quite thick* (stirred these with a plastic toothpick to mix the colors). This was the 2nd background. The gold is from dropping the Colorburst Metallic gold onto the w/c paper after dabbing the magical & brusho colors around with a brush. Used the toothpick to drag the metallic gold around, as it comes out in a droplet. *this was the 2nd background, added more water droplets to the magicals to get a lighter color on this effort.

 

- Artplorations Tree Stencil used and spread some glass gel bead paste that had been colored with gold acrylic and Colorburst Metallic Yellow. Only used part of the stencil, and probably would have looked better to use the entire stencil, but wanted to leave a space for the greeting. Also should have had the stencil higher towards the top of the piece.

 

- TH Alteration EF (Nordic Reindeer) to emboss, looked straight when inserted into the folder but the finished result does look crooked. Gah!

 

- HLS Mixed Christmas Sentiment was 'inked' with the Nuvo glue pen and foiled. This did not work as nicely as expected, perhaps because of the folder embossing. Debating on scraping this foil off, restamping with versamark and using heat embossing powder. Deciding if the  tree is going to be covered as well!

 

#2 effort:

 

 This was the first background done, & the colors were a bit dark, but after drying, kept on trying to create something.

 

- Used the same Artplorations stencil, but instead of paste, used DI Fossilized Amber to sponge, and used the entire stencil shape. This DI looked much too dark, so went back over it with Brilliance Galaxy Gold, and it does look more 'gold' IRL. Had the stencil positioned ok, top to bottom, but not side-to-side {sigh}.

 

- Same TH embossing folder and then foiled. (the 2 pieces'  folder embossing and foiling were done at the same time) Even though the folder looked perfectly straight when the background was placed inside it...I was very careful doing this after seeing the crooked look in #1 card...it still looks a bit wonky.  This foiling turned out a bit better than the first attempt though.

 

#3--

 

- same supplies as used for the previous backgrounds, but this was a glossy c/stock which just mopped up what color was on the craft mat from the first 2 efforts. Actually it looks pretty good on the background, so will be experimenting with glossy c/s again. Used the other tree on the Artplorations stencil, mixed up some more glass gel bead paste, colored again, and spread this through the stencil. Not a great look. Ditto with the foiling. The foiling can be scraped off I've learned, and could always add a die cut sentiment over this. Not sure about the tree though.

 

These 3 warts need some major rework or else tossed. If time allows, will try again for a better Christmas Club effort. I shared these because quite often I get discouraged with my own efforts. It lifts my spirits when I see expert cardmakers that I admire, make boo-boo-s & share. I know that others go through the same process but when it seems everything you touch, falls to dust, and MoJo is gone walk-about, well.... That's why I share the warts! I hope my mistakes will help someone else when they are trying new techniques. Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it doesn't. But, oh my, when it's THREE in a row, and it's still not working...that's very discouraging!!! Will be interested in hearing your thoughts on fixes (or say: Toss 'Em!) - or how your experiments can turn out, and how you saved.

 

AHA! Finally......

Some time back my friend Hazel (My Card Attic) had done a sponged ornament (sorry I can't find the specific post) as she was practicing her sponging. Monkey see, Monkey try to do, so I had made this ornament. Used a circle die to shape the sponging area.Then a Tim Holtz poinsettia stencil & glass gel bead paste to add a poinsettia (yeah, this was in the Crapalanche). After thinking all day on Saturday, I hunted this ornament up to make a card. (Figured at least the main image done so that it was presentable, yeah?) This was just sponged on a piece of white c/s, with the raised paste area on it, didn't want to run through the Big Shot; hand cut it, added some Christmas Twine for the hanger.

Used a PB Stellar coverplate die to cute some pink 'non-Christmas' paper. Also had a Falling Snow dots embossed card front in the C pile, so inspiration for a card. Die cut adhered onto dotted card front, added to a side fold card. The ornament is popped up and used Wplus9 stamp set (the font is a heavier font than what I used on the other cards)...foiled with the Nuvo glue, and called it done!! Pretty fast compared to the agony of the 3 warts shared above. Apologies for the long post..I just felt blabby.

Before I go, let me give a big welcome shout out to a new follower. How wonderful to gain a new friend, rather than losing one as has happened of late. Hope you can take some time to hop over to say Hello to Bonnie of This Creative Day .  Bonnie, thanks so much for becoming a follower and I hope you'll enjoy visiting.

 

Do please take time to visit my fellow team members (blog links in the right sidebar). I am certain they will be showing some amazing cards....And thanks for sharing in my card making adventures! As DH says "Some you win, some you lose. That's life". Have a great day. Hugs