DECK THE HALLS

I have another wintery Christmas card for you today using the fabulous Let It Snow A5 Stamp Plate from Creative Expressions.

I stamped Deck The Halls with manganese blue archival ink randomly around my background and then coloured with broken china Distress Ink to give that icy frosty feel. I have added a few step by steps below to create my UTEE tree.

Stamp the tree onto greyboard/mountboard and cut out.  We are simply stamping here to get the shape of the tree.

Apply VersaMark ink to the tree shape, simply press the inkpad onto the shape.

Sprinkle the tree with Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel, tip off the excess and then heat with your heat tool to melt.

Once you have melted the enamel with the heat tool, apply a second layer and heat again to melt.

Continue to apply enamel until you have a glass tile like finish as shown in the picture. Sprinkle Lapis Black Ultra Thick Embossing Crystals into the enamel whilst its hot along with some Perfect Pearl powders and then heat once again to melt.

This is what the enamel will look like once you have added a little colour.

Place the stamp into the hot enamel, leave for a few seconds and then remove. This does not harm the stamp in anyway.

Once you remove the tree image you are left with the pattern impressed into the enamel, I love this effect and never tire of this technique, it adds wonderful texture and interest to a project.

To add a little more interest and to add highlights to the raised areas, rub over with a little silver Paint Dabber, using your finger.

The silver really lifts the design and adds a little sparkle to the dimensional tree.

I also added two small baubles to my card using the same stamp set and a Spellbinders Heirloom Ornament die.

Stamp the tree image onto white card using archival inks, place the Spellbinders die over the tree and then run through the Grand Calibur machine.

Whilst the die is still in place, colour with broken china ink, to tone down the white areas.

I matted the baubles onto a coordinated piece of card to lift from the background and added Bakers Twine to each bauble and to the base of my tree.

25 has been added to the top of the card cut from white card and again stamped with the background from the tree stamp.  I have also cut 25 a second time and offset a little against the stamped 25 to add a contrast against my background. I have also added heart buttons to the top of each bauble for added interest and dimension.

To complete I have also added Chitchat stickers.

Creative Expressions are also launching a new project book which should be available sometime next week and will have a total of 21 projects in total and I am thrilled to say I have a project showcased in their first edition. Keep your eye on the Creative Expressions web page HERE for more details soon.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tracy x x