Prince of Peace - Winter holiday card with Perfect Pearls, die cuts, and Distress ink smooshing

Christmas is coming. Time to make some seasonal joyous cards. The image for this card is from Unity Stamps framed with a Spellbinders die. The background is Distress ink with Perfect Pearls and the image is done with Perfect Pearls, too.

Supplies

LinkDeli.com

These are not affiliate links just the products I use and where you can find them, too (if they're not retired).

Putting It Together

If I am either stumped for an idea of what to make or I have too little time to make something (like the rare occassions when I finish a make and don't want to go bed yet), I'll do some 'experimenting' with colours or techniques or just simply play with ink. Sometimes I'll even remember to take pictures. 

The background for this project came from one such 'experiment' but I can't find pictures in my stash of shots, so.. I can point you to a blog post where I did a similar "smushing" technique. Basically, smush some Distress ink pads on a non-porous work surface (plastic sheet or silicone worksheet), spray the smushes with water or water mixed with Perfect Pearls, smush the cardstock (I use heavy watercolour paper 'cause it handles wet better) in the puddly ink, air dry or dry with a heat tool, add more sparkly with Perfect Pearls. To see the technique in pictures, check out my post where I used this technique to make an ornaments card: http://rijacki.blogspot.ca/2016/09/ornaments.html.

Unlike other panels that I've made and put in my stash, I also forgot to write down the colours used on the back. So.. I am guessing from what I see: Dusty Concord, Seedless Preserves, Milled Lavender, Shaded Lilac, and Chipped Sapphire with Perfect Pearls of Confetti White and Perfect Gold. 

 I decided to use two newly acquired items, the Prince of Peace stamp from Unity and the Triple Tear Nestable dies from Spellbinders. I didn't really want to cover up the background much and I didn't want to stamp directly on to it so I pondered vellum. I did a dry fit with the stamps and dies on the background and slipped in some vellum, too, to see how much it would obscure.

I debated between embossing and Perfect Pearls and my favourite powdery substance won. Perfect Pearls doesn't give any dimension like embossing, but it also doesn't spread like embossing can. Thus, it can be better for crisper detail where dimension isn't needed. Just like with embossing, stamp with VersaMark (or Perfect Medium) and then brush on. Unlike embossing powder, you can't cascade Perfect Pearls. But.. it's like really cool magic when you brush Perfect Pearls over a VersaMark stamped image. The image appears right before your eyes. Once you have the Perfect Pearls applied, spray water into the air and waft your paper with Perfect Pearls through the mist in the air. This very slight amount of water sets the Perfect Pearls.

The end result looks almost as if it was foiled.

I die cut the double tear circle from foiled card stock and used a circle die to trim the vellum to fit. Before die cutting the foiled card stock, I backed it with adhesive sheet to make it easier to add it to the card later.

I trimmed the background to a square and dry fit to make sure it all still looked good. I dry fit a lot while I am working on stuff. Partly because I design in the moment as I am making what I am making.

 I removed the release sheet from the foiled cardstock and positioned the manger circle on the back. (I should have paid more attention to how it lined up with the 'tears'). I used uncut release sheet to burnish the vellum into the adhesive. Using the foiled cardstock to adhere the vellum perfectly hides the adhesive that holds the vellum on the card.

I positioned the foiled cardstock on the background and used release sheet to burnish it down. The foiled cardstock gives a nice low dimension to the card, making it into a lovely frame for the image.

I then added a matting of the same foiled cardstock and adhered it all to a card base I made to fit. I love the look of purple and gold together.

Inside, I used two stamps I got in a Unity grab bag, stamping them in metallic ink.

Challenges

Unity {show and tell} Facebook group: Holiday

Addicted to Stamps and More: Holiday

Crafty Friends: Christmas in July

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas extra: Anything Goes

Crafting From the Heart: Anything Goes

Penny's Paper-Crafty: Anything Goes