2015 #23 OMG she used Glitter! {by Leandra Franich}

 2015 Topic 23: Christmas Gifts and Cards

Hi everyone Leandra here,

I find Christmas stressy - don't get me wrong, I DO really look forward to it, because I love the family get together, and the chance to hunker down in the winter weather, nurture and provide for the family with good food, wine and Christmassy treats. I kinda wish that Christmas would stop there, job done! That would be bliss! It's the getting the right presents and making cards end of thing that can add to the stressy side of this time of year!

Hopefully most of you are at the tail end of things now, there might be a bit of wrapping up to do, or maybe even a few last minute cards to send. Well I'm here to help on that score! 

I dug out some masterboards and in ONE afternoon I made over 30 cards! YES! I think that is the most productive card making session of my life! I made another 20 Monday morning, so I've had a blast, and I do admit this has brought me well and truly into the Christmassy spirit of things!

But I do have a confession, this process might have involved glitter, and 'more is more' with glitter right?? Well it seems in the cold light of day, maybe I went a tad overboard, but it has been probably over 10 years since I used any! LOL ....so I might have been making up for lost time !! Oh, and word of warning - do NOT buy that glitter wrapping paper! Looks nice, but I have glitter EVERYWHERE! I am seriously thinking that we will be opening our presents OUTSIDE this year!!! haha - at least it has been mild!


So these cards are really basic, but so easy to make, and because the backgrounds are interesting, they look like you've put in a decent effort. Just start with a brayered masterboard background, mine are left overs from numerous previous things. I used 3 A4 sheets to make 30 cards!

Tip: if the background is pale, then you can use fine detailed stamps like the JOFY stamp above, which was then painted with transluscent colours to make the image pop. You can find all the JOFY Christmas stamps here.

...But if the Background is bold, then just find a bold, dark stamp (the Xmas Hot Picks are ideal), stamp it in black and layer up - these are super, super fast! A teeny bling spot, and a dash of clear glitter glue on the snowy side of the tree, job done!

Step One: Make your brayered background. But you can stop at the 'brayered colour' step, you don't need to add lots of stamps as the sample below shows...this is just greens and blues brayered together. Takes 2 mins to do an A4 sheet like that. Baubles painted in gold and glitter.

This video is a reminder of the brayering technique, and I show you how to make this card in that video....

Step Two: Cut up your brayered BG into strips, and cut black matt layers to match. Find a stamp to fit, adhere to card, add glitter! On a larger card there was room for so more JOFY stamps to detail the edges.

Or perhaps a bit of a decoration across the top with paint to tie it in...

Sparkly crown anyone???

Step Three: Start adding some paint to your stamped masterboards - it might be transluscents, but I also added gold and glitter too!

But this sample was the glitter ramped up on overdrive...dot in the background on the plain card, on the lettering that is a 'Christmas' word stamp stamped directly onto the card and painted in Tango and Cherry Red...with glitter obvs!

Don't worry, I have already confessed on twitter to such rampant use of glitter, and promise not to over indulge again. Indeed the recipients of these cards will be shocked, not just to get a card from me in the first place, but one with glitter and hand made is a once in a decade occurrence!! I know, I am the worst Christmas-crafter in the world! But at least I am honest about it!!

{In my defense, we do only have 3 weeks until our biggest product release of the year and we have a LOT coming up to show you!!!}

Merry Christmas everyone, if I can find time to do cards...then YOU can too !! Nuff said!

Leandra