Saturday 12 December 2015

As You See It 116 DT

This week, at As You See It, Amanda has set a theme challenge. You might expect that at Christmas, a Santa challenge would be quite normal. And it is, yet it threw me into a bit of a tizzy as I simply don't have any Santa stamps! Hard to believe, I know!



I'm not a punch art sort of card-maker and couldn't even find any Santa DSP in my scrapbooking scraps box! However, earlier in the year, I'd entered a starry night challenge and one of the ladies at my card class commented that it would make an excellent Christmas card. That stuck with me, so when my lovely upline came to my rescue and lent me Holiday Homes, from last year's Christmas catalogue, I came up with this...




I am also going to enter this card into the challenge at AAA Cards, where the challenge is Silent Night Christmas Cards.


Update
Since posting this card, a few people have asked how I did the sky. Well, I was playing around at my desk for a starry night challenge earlier in the year and came up with this. Really, it's unbelievably easy...

All you need are sponges and a punched circle of card to act as a moveable mask. I marked the centre of the card to act as a pivot point for my circle. 

Start with one colour and sponge against the edge of the the circle. I come in from the outer edge of the card, starting sponging on the scrap paper and working inwards, to avoid getting blobs of ink.



Move the circle and do the same thing with the second ink colour. It doesn't matter if you go over the previous inking, as long as you keep your touch light. It's always better to sponge lightly and build up more colour if you want it than to go in heavy-handed (or heavy-inked) from the start.


Then, move the circle, line it up with your centre mark and do the same thing again with the first colour.


Keep going around.


When you've finished, cut it out with a framelit.

In my original card, I stamped the house rooves first and masked them before doing any of this, but it didn't look right so I stamped the houses silver on black, cut them out then added them in so they were in silhouette.

In this card, I also stamped over the top of the circle with the grungy stars stamp from Holly Jolly Greetings using silver ink before adding my Santa sleigh. Other times, I've added in trees or masked off a hillside to create an horizon line first. Lots of possibilites...

So - please have a play along with this week's challenge at As You See It.

Further Update: Delighted to have this card win first place at AAA Challenge.



Ingredients
Card: Island Indigo, Whisper White, Silver glimmer
Stamps: Holdiay Homes, Holly Jolly Greetings
Inks: Night of Navy, Island Indigo, Tuxedo Black, Silver
Other: MFT circle dot die, dimensionals, rhinestones, sponges, circle framelit

15 comments:

  1. This is amazing, Jan! I love the technique you used on the sky!

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  2. Stunning sky, would love to know how you achieved it. Thanks for playing at AAA Cards.

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    1. Thanks. I'm going to update the post with how I did the sky.

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  3. This is stunning! Will you please share how you did the sky?

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    1. Thanks. Yes, I'm going to update the post with instructions.

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    2. Thank you so much! :) :) :)

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  4. Oh what a wonderful technique you used to ink your gorgeous sky. You certainly came up with a beauty for both challenges! Thanks for linking up and playing with us at AAA Cards.

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  5. Simply stunning! What a great effect, I love that background. Thanks for updating your post with great instructions and pictures. Thanks for playing along with us at AAA Cards!

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  6. I would never have guessed that is how you did the sky but it is awesome. Very unique and it looks amazing. Thanks for sharing with us at the AAA cards challenge!

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  7. such an awesome card...love how the sky looks...very creative
    Happy Holidays!

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  8. A little bit late but I just saw this on AAA - amazing! Congrats on your win!

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    1. Thanks Claire. I was pretty pleased with both the card and the win!

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  9. Jan, I was browsing pinterest postings and found this wonderful Christmas card of yours. Like so many others, I fell in love with your sky. Thank you so much for sharing your technique.

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    1. Thanks, Peggy. I'd almost forgotten about this card but now you've reminded me... I've got an idea for a variation this Christmas!

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