8 Days of Holiday Cards! Day 8: Wedding Snowglobes!!!

Oh my goodness, friends! Today's card is quite possibly my favorite for this season, and is a very special card for my friends who just got hitched!!

I knew I would be making this awesome couple a card, and decided to head straight to Paper Source to buy a stamp I'd been eyeing for quite some time! This fantastic scripted Mr & Mr stamp is one of my favorites from Paper Source both because it is beautiful, and because it speaks to their support of the LGBTQ community. I've appreciated this so much about the company, and love that their support feels genuine and authentic, and not just another marketing ploy to get more money from another niche audience.

I wanted to make these fantastic gentlemen a somewhat rustic card, and opted for a buffalo check background, made with the Lawn Fawn Gingham Backdrops stamp set using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink over a Paper Source Red piece of cardstock cut to 3.75x5.5 inches. I mounted the background to my Paper Source A2 Paperbag folded card base, leaving the 1/4 inch strips on the left and right of the panel.

Once I'd decided on the use of the Mr & Mr stamp and the buffalo check, I wanted to find something Christmasy to class up the card so it was appropriate for both a congrats wedding card and a Christmas card - which brought me to the BEAUTIFUL snowglobe from Stampin' Up's Sparkly Seasons!

I stamped the base of the snowglobe with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink on a scrap of Paper Source Superfine White paper, and fussy-cut it out. I used Moonlight Gel Pens for the holly and berries, a white ball-point pen for the year, and a gold pen for the branches, which helped soften the base of the snowglobe, and make it look less blocky.

For the globe itself, I diecut a circle from vellum, and positioned it where I wanted it on my card, to determine placement of the snow stamp from the Sparkly Seasons set with my MISTI tool. Once I'd positioned the stamp, I stamped it directly over the buffalo check panel where the globe would sit, using Frost White Pigment Ink. I then moved the panel off the MISTI and stamped the snow again directly on the vellum circle. This way, when I mounted the globe over the buffalo check, it adds two layers of snow that are facing each other, which gives more snow and more dimension to the finished image. Because the frost white was a very wet pigment ink, I ran the heat tool over the vellum carefully to help it dry without warping the vellum, and over the buffalo check background.

Once the snow was dry enough on my vellum circle, I flipped it upside-down and stamped the Mr & Mr stamp with a clear VersaMark ink pad, and then added copper embossing powder and heat-embossed the sentiment. I then mounted all of the pieces to my card using my tape runner delicately around the outside edge of the snowglobe vellum piece.

On the inside of the card, I stamped this beautiful scripted Merry Christmas sentiment from Paper Source's 2016 Christmas line. I'm still SOOOO happy with this card, and can't wait to hear their reaction!!

We also went to a wedding of another couple this past weekend, and I wanted to use the snowglobe again since it's a December wedding! I don't own the Mr & Mrs stamp from Paper Source with the same scripted font, so I couldn't stamp a sentiment that would make sense for this couple directly on the vellum, so I had to change it up a bit. I followed a similar process for preparing the snow globe base and the snow on the inside of the vellum and the outside of the card base, once again creating two layers of snow here - but the snow this time was with silver pigment ink. I also stamped some tiny hearts from the Lawn Fawn Party Animal set with a bright pink pigment ink. I initially finished this card with a scripty Congratulations sentiment from Paper Source, heat embossed with copper powder, but then wasn't completely satisfied. Because there wasn't a sentiment on this snow globe, it felt like it was missing something inside. I carefully peeled up the globe and added in five die cut hearts that I'd previously die cut with coordinating Lawn Cuts dies from You're Stinkin' Cute and Stuck On You. I added some pink watercolor to it via watercolor pencils, and then carefully adhered the snowglobe again. This helped finish off the card.

I'm still not sure if I like the card better with or without the larger hearts inside, but I'm definitely happy I could use Christmas-y themed fun with these wedding cards!

Well, friends, that wraps up my 8 Days of Holiday Cards for 2016! I hope this gave you some fun inspiration for your holiday season!

Happy Holidays!
-JBJ

Floral wreath card

The current Lawnscaping challenge asks that we use floral stamps. Lawn Fawn has some fantastic and beautiful floral sets, and the few flower stamps I have are small flower embellishments that came in other Lawn Fawn sets, making for a fun challenge! I opted to make a floral wreath, using the small leaf stamp from Sweater Weather for the leaves stamped directly on the Paper Source Paper Bag coverstock panel, and the flowers from Sweater Weather and Stuck On You, stamped and die cut. I began the card by tracing a circle with light pencil where I wanted my wreath. The leaves were stamped with first and second generation stamping to give more depth without changing colors. I opted to heat emboss the Stuck On You flower to add more depth, as I felt like using foam squares would add too much depth.

I stamped the Thanks sentiment from Thank You Tags in the wreath's center with Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and rounded the two opening corners of the card base and panel before adhering the panel.

I finished the card off with a superfine white satin ribbon, adhered with a glue dot (zot).

This card is being entered in to the current Lawnscaping Challenge #127: Beautiful Florals.

Stuck On You Birthday Card

Jenny had a birthday! :) For her card, I tried to stick with just a few colors with the ink and paper used. I started by stamping the tall cactus and round cactus randomly on the panel with Grass green Pigment Ink, and then added in the spiky succulent with Ocean mint pigment ink and the cactus flower with peacock pigment ink, which was the most important detail for this Lawnscaping Challenge. I mounted the panel to a Paper Source Peacock custom-sized folded coverstock card, as I wanted to have a taller card than usual so I could include a lot of the cacti in the background.

I stamped and heat-embossed a banner image from a Paper Source rubber stamp in my stash with gold embossing powder on Paper Source Mint coverstock paper, and fussy cut it out. I then stamped, heat embossed and die cut the spiky succulent long leaves stamps from the Stuck On You set, and adhered them to the back of the banner to have them popping out at the top. I first tried stamping and embossing these guys with the Ocean ink, but found that I didn't like the contrast with the embossed Ocean ink and the mint banner. I opted for a different lighter green ink, which ended up contrasting better, and standing out more from the busy background I'd created.

This card is being entered in to the current Lawnscaping Challenge #127: Beautiful Florals.