Seven Holiday Cards with Shimmery White

I felt ambitious today and came up with seven very different looking cards, all using Shimmery White cardstock which I dug out of my stash. (Why do I hoard the good stuff instead of using it?)

The only stamping on this first card is the sentiment, from Teeny Tiny Wishes. I ran a Night of Navy Top Note through my Big Shot with the Petals a Plenty embossing folder. I sponged the Shimmery White layer with Night of Navy to soften the look. The snowflakes are also die cuts, from the Snowflakes Set #2 Sizzlet 4-pack. Three half pearls from the Pretties kit complete the card.


I'm very pleased with this next card which uses the Gifts of Christmas set. I markered the stamp with Glorious Green, Real Red, YoYo Yellow, and Brilliant Blue. I layered the image on Brilliant Blue and used the Ticket Corner punch to fancy it up a bit more. The card base, which I ran through the Big Shot using a Texturz Plate, is Real Red with a scalloped panel of Glorious Green. The image panel is raised up on Stampin' Dimensionals.


I only had enough patience to marker the dove image once, so next I decided to emboss it in gold on the Shimmery White. I layered it on a piece of Brushed Gold cardstock on which I used the Scallop Border punch. The card base is Not Quite Navy, and I used the Petals a Plenty embossing folder to jazz it up. The final touch was to scallop the right edge of the card (where it opens) and then add some gold embossing. Pretty cool, eh?


I had embossed a second Gifts of Christmas dove image in gold, and decided to do something a little different with it: I trimmed the top close to the image, but left the bottom intact and just used a Corner Rounder punch to soften the look. I chose very non-traditional Christmas colors -- Lavendar Lace, Tempting Turquoise, and Pink Passion -- to finish the card. I used the Petals a Plenty embossing folder (can you tell I like this one?) on the Pink Passion panel. Three half pearls add a slight touch of elegance to this unusual card.


Next I grabbed the Dasher stamp and stamped three images in Rich Razzleberry highlighted with Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint. The first card has a Melon Mambo card base. I stamped Rich Razzleberry snowflakes (from Serene Snowflakes) the same way as Dasher. The Top Note panel is raised on Stampin' Dimensionals. The snowflake is from the Snowflake Set #2 Sizzlet 4-pack. A tied piece of polka-dotted Melon Mambo grosgrain ribbon and some strategically-placed gold brads complete the card.


My last two cards for the day are pretty simple. On the top one I ran a piece of DSP from the Lovely Flowers Bundle (Level 3 Hostess) through the Big Shot with a Texturz plate.


The striped DSP on the final card is from the Rich Razzleberry Patterns pack. The "Peace on Earth" sentiment is from Four the Holidays.


It's unusual for me to make this many cards in one sitting, but I sure earned a good night's sleep for my efforts!

Shimmer Paint Adventures

Today was interesting, not so much by design as by gravity. But more on that later...

I came up with two very similar cards this afternoon using Stampin' Up!'s Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint (available in the Holiday Mini Catalog). The main difference is that on one of these I stamped the snowflakes on the card base with Rich Razzleberry (second card below), and on the other I used the shimmer paint for the background snowflakes (first card). I was amazed at the difference the shimmer paint made!




I intentionally posted a less-than-perfect picture in the first photo so that you can see just how shimmery the shimmer paint is. To accomplish this look, I simply inked up my stamp with dye ink, then used a sponge dauber to pat a wee bit of the shimmer paint onto the stamp before stamping it on Whisper White. Is that cool, or what?

Stamp sets: Serene Snowflakes, Four the Holidays (on the inside)
Colors: Rich Razzleberry, Orchid Opulance
DSP: Rich Razzleberry Patterns
Big Shot: Texturz plate (on the Orchid Opulance layer)
And: Champagne Mist shimmer paint

* * * * * * * * * * *

And now, for today's adventure:

I may have created a new technique! It could be called "Painting by Gravity" or "Klutz Backgrounds" -- but it certainly wasn't intentional.

I was oh so very careful using my shimmer paint today. Really I was! It's such great stuff that I didn't want to waste a drop, so I was very carefully daubing out of the cover of the bottle with the bottle itself put safely out of the way. Or so I thought. I went to put the lid on the bottle after stamping the snowflakes when, to my horror, I dropped the opened bottle! I quickly put the bottle right side up so I wouldn't lose any more of the paint, and then sat there in shock for a few seconds. Instinctively I grabbed my bone folder and started scooping up as much paint as I could to put back into the bottle. (I still have 2/3rds of the bottle left, so I consider myself fortunate.)

Faced with a remaining puddle, I grabbed the nearest paper and started blotting up the paint. It happened to be a sheet of solid Rich Razzleberry DSP, and when I looked at the design the paint made on it, I thought to myself, "Hey, I may be on to something!" So I grabbed the nearest cardstock, Chocolate Chip, and blotted up the rest of the paint that hadn't dried yet.

I put the papers aside to dry while I cleaned up the rest of the mess. I must say, my grey sweatshirt is looking mighty glitzy tonight! Astonishingly, no paint hit my keyboard, my pile of DSP and cardstock, my camera, or the carpet. I took pictures of the dried papers from several angles, and below are two photos of each piece.








I have NO idea what I'll use these nifty papers for, but perhaps I'll find the right stamp down the road that just begs for something like what I have here.

I can't say that I'd recommend this new technique to anyone -- it aged me rapidly -- but I did my best to make lemonade out of lemons.