Christmas Angels

As many of you know one of my "simple dreams" has come to it's full realization - the dream to have a place on-line where we (Debbie, Trudee, Cindy, Sharon and myself) have gathered together in one spot to educate you and share our love of stamping/creating with you. You can find this community associated with our store in "the CLASSroom". I hope that you will visit and leave comments for the wonderful women who share their inspirations with us there.

I still plan on continuing to post here to my own personal blog and hope that you will continue to have the time to come and visit me on ocassion here as well.

Today I wanted to share a quick card that I made using some of the new Cornish Heritage Farm products we carry in our store. With Christmas right around the corner and the arrival of these wonderful stamps I was inspired to create a design that could easily be mass produced.

Supplies used: Trumpeting Angel, Modern Star, Aged Sheet Music, Christmas Expressions, Kim Hughes Mocha Chica Paper Pack, Vanilla Bean Notecard and Envelope, Neenah Solar White Cardstock, Adirondack Snow Cap (white) Pigment Ink Pad, Brilliance Crimson Copper, Distress Ink (Tea Dye and Walnut Stain), Ink Blending Tool, Making Memories Trim

To create this project I simply stamped the Aged Sheet Music on Solar White cardstock using Tea Dye ink. I then sponged the edges with both Tea Dye and Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The next step was to stamp the angel twice. Once directly on the sheet music and then again on a plain white piece of cardstock. This time I inked the angel with Walnut Ink and added shimmer to the edges of the angel using Crimson Copper. This addition of the Crimson Copper was for two reasons. The first was to bring the coloring of the angel closer to the coloring of the patterned paper I had selected from the Kim Hughes pack, and the second is to add a hint of shimmer to the angel itself to make it more of a focal point. It is incredibly difficult to capture these types of details in photos, but in person it is so easy to see why the effort makes so much difference.

I cut the corner of the sheet music at an angle that coordinated with the angels feet to help create a stronger focal point, as well, this gave me the perfect spot to attach a little "tag". This tag was so simple to create - I simply inked the word "Peace" from the Christmas Expressions set on white cardstock, cut it out and sponged the edges. After adding the patterned paper layer I quickly sewed around the exterior edge three times in a haphazard method to echo the distressed feeling of this card.

I could have left the image as a single layer card, but wanted to add the emphasis of the two wings as shown below. A quick tip I have for cutting out detailed images is to move the paper when you cut rather than moving your scissors. It is so much easier to follow the tiny lines when you use this method. My second recommendation is to use a Quickie Glue pen on the finer details. In this case I used my ATG adhesive on the main body, but added glue to the feet, dress tail and trumpet with the Quickie Glue pen. I don't like get sticky fingers - LOL - and so this is the perfect tool for me Ü

Last, but certainly not least in my books, is the addition of an envelope that coordinates. As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I am truly in love with Adirondacks new Snow Cap pigment ink. I first inked the Modern Star with Snow Cap and then touched the tips once again with the Crimson Copper. As you can see it leaves an absolutely beautiful impression on this very dark brown vanilla envelope.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you both here at simple dreams and over at the CLASSroom.

Comments

I fell in love with this angel and actually the whole card. I must get it asap, even though I don't like trimming the stamp :(
Thank you for all the info you provided.

Posted by: Shirl Martin | September 08, 2008 at 09:19 PM