2017 #14 Glitter: Sparkly Cards with ZA {by Chris Cresswell}

2017 Topic 14: Glitter

We kick of a new topic with a big bang tonight as Chris gets sparkled up and ready for some Christmas action! Watch for the lolly-pop sticks! Lots to see here !

Hi everyone, it's Chris Cresswell (aka Artmadnana) with you tonight, and I'd like to share with you some children's Christmas cards that I made recently using the gorgeous, new Christmas stamps from 'elenazinski art', for this new theme on 'Glitter'. 

Now I am not usually a 'Glitter girl' as my main interest area is art journaling. However, I do make an exception at Christmas, especially with five gorgeous Grandfairies to make Christmas and Birthday cards for. So, it was with these in mind, I asked to use the new Zinski stamp sets. 

The quirky, cute images are just perfect for the children's cards I had in mind.I ended up making far more than I needed because they are such fun to use! The images are so beautifully drawn that they lend themselves to quick, simple cards. I will show a couple of examples on here tonight, and if you are interested in seeing how I created the others pop over to my blog for more info here: loopsandlines.blogspot.co.uk.

This was the final line-up. I have used different media for the various backgrounds: for some I've used my beautiful stash of Pion Christmas papers, for others I've used an art journaled masterboard and Paperartsy Fresco chalk paints, for a couple I used Distress Oxide ink pads, and finally, I made some cards using simple dies. All of these were quick and easy and didn't need much thinking about. For all of the stamped images I've coloured using Copic alcohol ink markers as these add colour quickly and effortlessly. And lots of glitter.

As soon as I saw the totem pole character figures on set ZA19...

Zinski Art: Set 19

I thought of lolly/popsicle sticks. They are so cute. Then I thought of using a pop-up card with the images popping up when you open the card. These are easy to make on a Score board. YouTube/Pinterest has lots of different examples. I haven't used glitter since last Christmas, so it was great fun selecting different products to create a glittery result. I ended up choosing: Ranger's Stickles in Crystal and Xmas Red; DecoArt Glamour Dust; Suze Weinberg's Beadazzles, Electric Slide; Cosmic Shimmer Glitter jewels and Jones Tones Diamintina, and adhering them to the card with a ZIG 2-way glue pen. All of these stamped images are from two of the new sets: ZA17, ZA19.

Zinski Art: Set 17

The only problem with glitter, of course, is it gets everywhere. Each time I hoover up, I'm still finding glitter on the carpet two weeks after these were completed!

This is the 'before' photo. Once I'd made and assembled the pop-up cards, I painted the extra wide lolly sticks using: Mermaid, London Bus, and Granny Smith Fresco chalk paints. 

All my granddaughters love bright colours so I wanted the backgrounds in the next set of cards to be bright, fun and lively. What better then than to create an art journaled masterboard, so I could make several from one sheet of PaperArtsy Smoothy 240gms card.

I love adding lots of layers of stenciling, using the colours from the first layer then adding Fresco Chalk Snowflake and Midnight to allow the colours to pop. This created a vibrant background so I knew I was going to have a problem making sure it didn't dominate the wonderfully, quirky images I intended to stamp on top. 

I achieved this by drawing around each stamped image with black and white gel pens and also dry brushing a little of the Fresco Chalk Snowflake around the images. I think it worked! I also used some of my 'Wink of Stella' glittery pens over the images but its not easy to depict that in the photos. I so love that chicken, I had to use him twice!

Here I've been a bit cheeky and used a couple of images from two previous Zinski stamp sets: ZA02 and ZA07, to adapt a quirky tree into a bauble and a little 'monster' into an angel. I hope Elena doesn't mind! 

Zinski Art: Set 02

Zinski Art: Set 07

 
I've used a lot of glitter on these cards, mainly due to a previous technique not working in the way I'd hoped. I used Kay Carley's new stencil: PS070 to create a base layer with 3D gloss gel, hoping that the gloss would resist the oxides on top and leave pretty white snowflakes showing through. No such luck, but you live and learn! Once the layer of oxides had been placed on top, I replaced the stencil over the raised gloss gel, dabbed on the glue then sprinkled the glitter over the top.  A bit OTT, but my granddaughters will love them!

PaperArtsy Stencil 070 (PS070)

These final four cards were made with various dies (something else I don't use very often) and some gorgeous Crafty Notions glittery foil. But, if you want to know how I made these, you will have to pop over to my blog.  I really think that's quite enough glitter for one night!

I hope you have been inspired to seek out your own glittery jars from all your stash and start creating your own wonderful Christmas cards. If you have children/grandchildren to make for, you really can't choose better stamped images than these gorgeous Zinski sets this Christmas! All available from the stockists listed below. I have lots of ideas for gift tags and wrapping paper with these stamps too! Until next time...
Chris Cresswell

Blog: loopsandlines.blogspot.co.uk
Facebook: Chris Cresswell
Twitter: artmadnana
Instagram:artmadnana
Pinterest: Chris Cresswell

Awesome! What an amazing array of ideas! You really have got a head starton the rest of us for Christmas! I love your bauble-leaves and crystallised popsicle stick people !! Brilliant!

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