Christmas in July

Today it got up to almost 80 degrees and here I am working on a Christmas card! The challenge this week at SweetStamps is to use gold and/or silver...so I used both. The frame stamp called "Elegant Scrollwork" is one of my favorites from SweetStamps. It is so beautiful when embossed! I used vellum and colored in the corners just a bit by inking the back side of the vellum with TH Distress Ink "Antique Linen"

I used 2 different brands of embossing powder: Rubber Stampede (silver) and PSX (gold). They melt differently...the silver gets smoother, but I prefer the texture of the gold. The embossing "ink" is Top Boss "Tinted". The 'Merry Christmas' sentiment stamp is from Stampin' Up. It is mounted on gold foil paper and popped up a bit using Scrapbook Adhesives squares.

To stamp the 2 silver trees I first cut a mask of the tree then held it carefully in place while stamping both side trees. I don't usually use gold and silver together...but this time I like it!

I'm entering this in the challenges at

http://sweetstampsblog.blogspot.com - #177 Gold and/or Silver

http://craftybootschallenges.blogspot.com - Christmas in July

http://timbroscrapmania.blogspot.it - #98 Christmas in July

http://cutedaisymay.blogspot.com - Christmas in July

http://robynsfetishchallengeblog.blogspot.com - #220 Christmas in July

Painters' Tape Technique

I tried a new technique this evening...using painters' tape to make a textured background in wide undefined bands. I also wanted to try some clear embossing as part of the background, but I used the wrong kind of embossing powder...I grabbed the one for bonding materials not just the plain clear. So I added some very fine glitter to take care of the stickiness. Now I'm glad it worked out that way!

The sparkle and the tape texture show up a bit better in the photo below.

The butterflies are colored with a variety of alcohol markers and have a bit of glitter glue along the wing edges.

Ingredients:

Stamps - Stampabilities "All things are possible", Sky Kids "Butterfly"

Inks - TH Distress Inks, Memento "Tuxedo Black", Top Boss "Embossing"

Embossing Powder - Stampendous "Stamp N' Bond"

Challenges:

http://addictedtocas.blogspot.com - #42 "Sky"

http://sweetstampsblog.blogspot.com - July "Painters' Tape Technique"

http://pinspirationalchallenges.blogspot.ca - #115 "Photo Inspiration"

http://www.wordartwednesday.blogspot.com - #139 "Anything Goes"

http://www.ipalamountain.com/2014/06/sketchbook-saturday-challenge-125 - #125 Sketch