Christmas Skates

I hope you enjoy today's card and it inspires you in some way.

My easel card features the newly released Christmas Skates stamp set from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  I actually used the digi version for this card and printed both the skates and the sentiment onto vellum.  As soon as it came out of the printer, I added Clear embossing powder over the ink and heat set it.  Then I added Silver Detail to the skate blades and heat set that as well.

I used Copic markers and colored the image from the back side (as my Copics don't play very well with my embossing powders).  Then I got to thinking I wanted some dimension on the front, so I added some Nuvo Crystal Drops (gloss white) to the holly berries and immediately covered them with Cerise glitter.  I discovered on past projects that if I add all the drops at the same time, they tend to blend together instead of looking like individual drops.  So this time around, I added the Crystal Drops to the berries that did not touch each other.  Once these were dry, I went back and added more Crystal Drops to the berries I didn't cover the first time around.  This definitely gave each berry more definition as well as lots of dimension.


For the card base, I used the Tonic Studios Ornate Frame Layering die set.  (If you don't see it on the website, be sure to leave a note to the owner and she will be happy to order it for you, if it hasn't already been re-ordered.) This set has eleven dies, so that you can mix and match.  I used the largest die to create my frame and then I added Nuvo Crystal Drops around the outside edge.  When it was time to begin adhering the layers, I decided the skates on the vellum image was a little too soft, so printed the skates again onto the same patterned cardstock used for the base and fussy cut them out.  I adhered the fussy cut skates to the back of the vellum image. I then decided to add an oval cut from white cardstock to the back of the vellum.

I used more dies from the Tonic Studios set to create the inside.  I also heat set Sparkle embossing powder around the white portion of the frame for a bit of sparkle.  The center oval is a Sue Wilson Designs die (Spanish Collection - Cordoba) and this is where you could write your personal note to the recipient.