It's a Biggy

I love being on holidays. It means I can sleep in but also sit in my pj's and have fun with my stamps. Last weekend was the stamp camp (yes I still have to take photo's) and I had some cut card left over from my card swap so I came up with a cute way of using it. I bought this stamp probably 3 years ago (sorry no longer available). I had good intentions at the time but consequently they have never been used ... until now. I love the image of Santa plucking a star out of the sky to put on top of the tree.

The card stock is real red and night of navy. The scallop is one of the Bigz Dies (scallop circle) and I used the small punch on the cropadile to punch the holes in. The stamp itself is coloured using the ink pens and I ran the edge of it through the metallic gold stamp pad. The white of Santa's costume is embossed white. I used the versa-mark pen to colour the areas in first. Gotta love that versa mark pen.

Now the ribbon is a cheat ribbon. Many times I have looked in the catalogue only to realise that the colour ribbon I want is just not made so I have made do with store bought ones or other stampin up ones. Well no more. I came across a video the other day that showed various different ways of colouring your white gross grain ribbon. For instance if you mix a little water with a couple of drops of ink refill and put your ribbon in there to take on the colour. This is the longest way. Another way is to draw line on it using your ink pens and finally, which is the one I used, run it along your ink pad. Use something to hold it in place but still allow it to slide. I found that to get full colour I had to do it a few times. My fingertips were nicely dyed as well. :)
I also went to a craft fair last weekend and bought some mottled blue gold leaf. I have never used gold leaf before and finally found someone who could tell me what to do. Below is one of my first cards using gold leaf. Despite the fact that the three stamps aren't in unison I think it turn out quite well.

You can just make out the gold leaf on the first image (no it's not the scalloped image which is embossed in gold) but in the second I angled the camera differently and the pattern shone out nicely.

To make this card you will need:

STAMPS

• French Script Background Stamp
• Baroque Motifs
• Friends 24-7

CARD

• Soft Suede
• Naturals Ivory
• More Mustard

OTHER

• Versamark
• Gold Metallic Powder
• Soft Suede Ink Pad

Finally the piece I am proudest of right now is this card box I made. First let me direct you to Mirkwood website where you can get free templates. It was here that I found templates for two cards. One for a large flower card and the other for a smaller flower card with an even smaller inner flower.

I decided to get creative and put the two templates together. It was to be a card for a friend who is going through a rough patch and then I was going to make a box to put a little necklace in that I bought her. As the card developed I could see the potential for it to be an actual card and box in one.

In the photo below you will see about 4 main levels. The first 3 (starting outside and moving in) are the templates. The centre piece is 3 Scallop circles punched out and scrunched up. All levels with the exception of the largest one are held together by the pearl brad in the centre. I made the brad by using the base of a Build-a-Brad and a pearl from the Pretties kit.

To fold it all up I bent each petal at their base, starting with the centre and moving outwards I wrapped them around each other. My first thoughts were to tie it all together somehow but then I decided on a lid. The lid is actually the Bigz Scallop circle die. I drew a circle in the centre as wide as the base of the flower (up to where the petals bend) and cut down to the circle in 8ths (same amount of edges to the petals). I folded these down and taped them and then to hide all the edges I used some wide ribbon. The Tag Punch was used for the tag and the stamp set is the Friends 24-7 one. I am very pleased with how it turned out. Oh you will notice that even though the photo was taken the day after, I still have red fingertips from the small Xmas cards. LOL