Cozy Country Christmas

Can I just say I’m in love??!!  I’ve been playing with my spankin’ new Unity/Brutus Monroe Hit The Brick background stamp and having SO MUCH FUN!!  I have so many ideas of ways to use this one!  Yesterday I laid out three panels of watercolor card stock, then covered my Brick stamp with a heavy layer of Ranger’s Distress Resist Spray and stamped it onto the stock.  The card above is the first one I did, and the spray was so saturated on the stamp that it lost some of it’s detail.  The second one was a better image and the third one was perfect!  BUT!  There was no way I was going to waste this one and here’s what I made!

So, here are my three panels after stamping out the Hit The Brick background, as mentioned above.  Not a great picture but you get the idea!

I sponged on these colors: Suede Surface ink, Terracotta Surface ink and Walnut Stain Distress Oxide.  The Resist Spray is VERY resistant so the shiny parts didn’t take the ink very well.

My finished panel; I didn’t love it but was hopeful I could make something beautiful with it!

I decided to cut out the center of my panel with Oval Stitched dies and create a “window”~ but what to place in my window?  After trying out several stamps, I settled on this one by Stampendous called Cozy Cottage which I stamped on a separate piece of Bristol Smooth watercolor paper using Gathered Twigs Distress ink.  I then “painted” over the lines with a watery brush to create the soft sepia look and added a little color using Distress Markers.

Then I realized that this would make a great shaker card!  I’ve only made a few with much angst and frustration, but this one came together beautifully!  I attached a piece of acetate to the backside of the window, then built a wall of foam tape going all around the back of the sponged panel to hold in the “snow” which is actually Ultra Thick Clear Embossing powder!!  I added a few sequins and micro beads as well!  Can you see them?  Anyway, I got all the pieces and parts in the correct order and voila!  A shaker panel!

I found the perfect patterned paper to attach the panel to, then mounted it to a card base of Brutus Monroe’s Lunchbag card stock!  The final touch was a few sprigs of Tim Holtz’ Holiday Greens holly touched up with a bit of Gathered Twigs distress oxide ink and three little “berries”!   Now, isn’t this a lovely scene framed by that amazing Brick background?!

Unity is still holding their awesome giveaway!  You have until October 1st to comment on any of the blogs which participated in the blog hop for a chance to win!  Here’s the link to their blog with the lineup!  On October 2nd, they’ll choose the lucky winners!  I hope it’s you!!  

 

Advertisement

Copics and Colored Cardstock!

Brutus  Monroe is featuring their cardstock this week and it really IS awesome!  My card for today was made using Lunchbag which is a wonderfully heavy, warm-colored kraft paper.  I tried something new with it today too!  Did you know you can color with Copics on kraft??!!  I didn’t!  But I decided to give it a try and created this card!  My stamps are Wild Hibiscus from Altenew and I stamped, masked and stamped some more till I had an arrangement I liked.

Then I got busy with my Copics!  I used several shades of red, yellow and purple to add layers of color on each blossom.  The Lunchbag cardstock took the Copic ink well and gave me a warm, muted look.  I used shades of aqua to fill in my background, leaving stroke marks to add a little “texture”.

This was basically a one-layer card but I decided to lift my sentiment with a piece of Thermoweb 3D Foam Squares after stamping on a scrap of white and layering it onto a scrap of Lunchbag then trimming the ends.  I also brushed a little Broken China distress ink around the edges to coordinate with the background of my card.  Now that I know how well Copics interact with colored cardstock, I’m going to play around with some other colors!  Let’s see…perhaps some of the beautiful blue Sea, Sidewalk, or even Heather!  Brutus Monroe’s cardstocks are high quality, 100 lb cover and a joy to work with!  Go get some!  😀  And don’t forget to check out what Marie, Aletha, Berina and Waleska have created for the Brutus Monroe blog!