2019 #20 A Bit of Sparkle: Believe you can fly with LPC {by Alison Bomber}

2019 Topic 20: A Bit of Sparkle

I love it when Alison does a Christmas post, because I just know deep inside the colour combo is going to be a delight. On this occasion the soft blues with gold embossing and speckles of white are gorgeous. ~ Leandra

Hi everyone, it's Alison here from Words and Pictures.  You might not have expected to find me playing along with the Sparkle theme - it's not one of my usual ingredients - but at this time of year there's a particular sparkly stuff I absolutely love... snow!

It's especially wonderful at night, when it shimmers in the moonlight or starlight, so to add to the magic, I created a gleaming hot air balloon for myself so that I could fly over the snowy rooftops enjoying the icy sparkles below.  And since I haven't got a moon or stars available in my craft room, I added sparkling candlelight instead.  Read on to the end to see it all lit up...

I always enjoy working in triptych form, so when I found the large greyboard arch tucked away in my stash, plans for a shrine to snow started to crystallise.  Some scrap cardboard forms the base, and I quickly sketched on where the candle might go, as well as the line of the triptych panels.

Sadly my camera has taken to ignoring some of the pictures I take, so I haven't got photos for all the stages of creating my snowy billows.  It started with gluing down some crumpled tissue paper around the sketched outlines, then adding some textured paste to create a smoother finish.

Next I painted the whole thing with Snowflake Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic and gave it a thorough dusting of Distress Dry Glitter in Clear Rock Candy.  I love this stuff as it has a really subtle shimmer, rather than being a full on glitter-type glitter.  I even painted my tealight casing with Snowflake and added some of the Dry Glitter to that too.

The two smaller side arches were cut using the Sized Arches dies by Tim Holtz.  It's a really useful set if you like triptychs and shrines!  Across all three panels, I used a natural sponge to create an ombre night sky.

Again, I'm afraid my phone ignored the photo I took before doing my stamping.  The blues, from lightest near the earth up to the darkest heavens are:  Glacier Ice, Venice Blue, Double Denim and Midnight (all Seth Apter colours).

As you can see, I used the fabulous row of buildings from Lynne Perrella's LPC012 to create my rooftop skyline.

The initial stamping was done in Watering Can Archival, then over that I used an embossing ink pen to add Bright White embossing powder to the roofs and windowsills.

I painted some multi-medium onto the houses so that I could add a whole layer of sparkling Dry Glitter...

... and later used the embossing ink pen again to add "shadows" of Liquid Platinum embossing powder to the sides of the houses.

The main reason for adding the Liquid Platinum to the houses was that I needed little touches of the warmer colour to echo Lynne Perrella's glorious balloon from LPC018.

By this time, I'd stamped the balloon in Watering Can Archival, inking only the balloon itself and jettisoning the doll hanging beneath it.  At first, I was going to give only the ribbons a Liquid Platinum gleam, but I changed my mind and went for the whole thing.

I'm so glad I did... just look at the sparkle you get when the light hits it at the right angle!

A quick peek behind the scenes... around the back there's a box lid providing support to the large central arch (it's six inches tall at the tip, so too much of a risk to trust to just a thin line of glue along the base), and little letter dice (Q and U so not much in demand) to support the side panels.

It's unlikely anyone would turn it around, but just in case someone picks it up to take a closer look I gave the whole of the back a rough coat of Midnight to make it all a bit neater!

Time to light the candle for extra glimmer!  And some bonus photos as a Christmas treat...

There's such a special glow about candlelight... it's one of the main things I enjoy about the festive season.

However much ice, snow and frost there may be outside...

... it's fine as long as you can enjoy the cosy warmth of flickering candles indoors!

Or if you're feeling really daring, then take a flight in a gleaming balloon and breathe the frosty air as you float above the ice-encrusted snowscapes!

I was really pleased with how my snowy billows turned out.  Using the tissue paper gave me plenty of bulk without having to waste lots of texture paste.  And I do love the subtle shimmer of Distress Dry Glitter - that's my kind of sparkle.  It works so perfectly as icy snow.  There's a magic about Lynne Perrella's wonderful balloon that I think is perfectly complemented by the warm gleam of the Liquid Platinum... so all in all, I think I have to concede that a little sparkle can be a wonderful thing, especially at this time of year!

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I know it's a very busy time for everyone.  I hope all your last-minute preparations are going well.  Enjoy the final countdown, and have a wonderful Christmas, everybody!

Alison xx

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