Thursday, August 30, 2012

Christmas in August

I hope you all enjoyed last week's Dreamweaver/Woodware UK blog hop.  There were so many great projects posted with lots of ideas, inspiration and techniques to keep me busy for quite a while. 

Today is the final post for the Christmas in August challenge and I've used an older but very versatile stencil, LL499, Long Stocking,  with two techniques, each one giving a totally different look.

 The first is using the double glitter technique.  You will need double sided mounting paper, coconut soap and microfine glitter.  For this project I used Glitter Ritz Microfine glitter in Kiwi, Sahara and Regal Red plus Cool Highlight Transparent glitter for the background. Begin by cutting card stock and double sided mounting paper to size.  Peel off the protective covering from one side of the double sided mounting paper and adhere it to the card stock.  Soap the back of the stencil and brush away the "crumbs" from the open areas of the stencil.  Remove the protective covering from the double sided-mounting paper and position the stencil, soap side down, on top.  Place the protective paper over the stencil and gentle rub to be sure it is firmly attached.  This will prevent the glitter from getting into places where you don't want it to be.  I started at the top with the Kiwi glitter and masked off the bottom part of the stocking, removing bits of the mask as I added other colors.  Remember to rub in the glitter with your finger tip to get the best results. 

To remove the stencil, place it face down on the table and begin peeling off the card stock with one hand and holding the stencil down with your other hand, walking your fingers along the stencil to keep it flat against your work surface.  Cover the remaining areas of sticky paper with the clear glitter and rub it in with your finger.  Trim edges and adhere to coordinating mat(s).  Adhere to patterned paper, add embellishments and then adhere card base and you're done!

The second card uses Core'dinations paper, sanded to remove the outer layer of color and reveal the outline of the stencil.  Here's what to do:  Place the stencil on the red paper and dry emboss using a personal die cut machine and "sandwich" stack that fits your machine.  In all cases remember to keep the stencil as close to the base plate as possible to keep it from bending.  It is recommended that you keep a set of clear plates just for dry embossing with stencils.   Repeat the process with green paper.  Rub the surface of the red and green images with a sanding block to reveal the embossed surface.  Cut the top of the stocking from the green paper and attach to the top of the red stocking.   You can either tear the edges as I did here, or trim them and adhere on to coordinating mat(s).  Adhere to patterned paper; add ribbon or other embellishments and adhere to card base.

For more Christmas ideas, check out the rest of the Dream Team posts, but please leave me a note first.  I love hearing from you.


See you next week for a new challenge and another chance to win a great prize.

Happy crafting,
Liz






4 comments:

  1. I love this stencil. It always takes me back to my childhood and the stockings hanging over our fake wooden fireplace with the "glowing red" log!

    I both cards and can't decide which is my favorite!

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  2. Cool cards Liz! I've always loved this stencil

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  3. LIz ... as usual both your cards are gorgeous, I like them both but I think the glitter wins out.

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  4. This is one of my favorite stencils, and I love the colors you chose. Not an ordinary Christmas green, but a more yellowy green. Great card, Liz!

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