It is with tremendous joy that we welcome our friend Ardyth Percy-Robb to The Classroom today! Ardyth is always wowing us with her clean & bright style! We are especially inspired by her stunning holiday creations and we are so grateful that she is joining us for Christmas in July!
You can see more of Ardyth's amazing work on her blog, MASKerade. And while you are there, make sure you leave Ardyth some comment love on her blog (you & your comment might be randomly chosen to win a $50 credit to our store before July 28th).
Thank you for inspiring us Ardyth and thank you for sharing your talent with us!!!
Good morning! Ardyth (from MASKerade) here and I’m so excited to have been asked to join in with Ellen Hutson’s fabulous, festive Christmas in July feature here at the Classroom! I love to make Christmas cards all year round and I chose some of my favourite Essentials by Ellen stamps and dies to create my project!
I chose some not-quite-traditional colours for my card – pinks and limes as well as a deep teal - as a fun twist on traditional red and green.
I started by cutting my background panel of Neenah Solar White to 4”x5.25”. I stamped partial wreaths (from Homespun Holiday) around the edges.
To ensure good ‘random’ spacing of the 3 different pinks and 3 different greens, I paired up my Copic markers and coloured the panel with one pair of colours at a time. Then I coated the Christmas baubles with Glossy Accents for dimension and shine and set it aside to dry.
Before creating my focal panel, I practiced stamping my main image on a scrap of cardstock. This helped to understand how the lights would look on the tree, and helped later with placement, masking and colouring.
I stamped the tangled lights (from Tis the Season) in the centre of my focal panel with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I stamped the lights again on a full-backed post it note and started the process of masking each light. There’s no denying that this was a little fussy and time-consuming, but my practice panel proved that the lights would not show up very well on the tree unless they were masked. I found it easier to place the tiny masks on my panel using tweezers.
Once I had all the lights masked (my practice panel showed which lights did not need to be masked), I placed my focal panel in my MISTI and laid the Christmas tree (from Christmas Scribbles) image on top. I picked up the tree with the door of the MISTI and then stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black.
I then used the tweezers to remove all the light masks (and days later I’m still finding the tiny, sticky little things in the funniest places!). I coloured the lights and the tree with the same Copic markers I had used for the background panel. I coated the lights with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen in clear and then with Glossy Accents. This combination gives shimmer, shine and dimension.
My sentiment was created with the Holiday Words “Joy” die and a strip of white cardstock coloured with Copic markers and stamped with a partial sentiment from Tis the Season. The strip is ‘woven’ into the die – popped up over one part and laying behind another part. I added sparkle to the little strip with Star Dust Stickles.
I cut my focal panel to 3.5”x4.75” and adhered it to a slightly larger black mat. I used foam tape to pop the focal panel up on my colourful background panel and adhered the whole thing to a white, top-folding A2 card base.
I love the mix of whimsical and graphic styles on this bold, fun card!
Supplies:
