Keeping Christmas July 2019 Edition

Not long ago, I spent a few hours playing in the studio with my Alcohol Inks and some Yupo paper and some glassy cardstock.  I wanted to try out a technique that I saw Jennifer McGuire do, where she used a protractor with some inexpensive felt to make a few alcohol inked backgrounds: Video Here.   I wanted to try my own version of this particular technique to get some multi-colored ombre backgrounds.  At that time, I only had a long acrylic block so I tried that and it worked pretty well.  The blue painter's tape works great for securing the ends of whatever you are using to make a background; felt or a baby wipe.  I actually like both of these techniques very much. I did not have any felt, so I grabbed a few baby wipes, unfolded them and stacked them, letting them dry to use as my felt.  I got the idea from another of her videos where she made her own ink pad using baby wipes.  My method is kind of a cross between the two things.  I can use reinkers or alcohol inks to create my background panels or stamped designs.  Since I like to use both, coated cardstock and Yupo paper, I get different results from each.  You just have to play around to see which thing works for which technique. That is how I ended up with my backgrounds.  Truly, all I'm ever doing is playing with colors and paper to see what results I get.  There's just no way to control what happens.

Here is a close approximation of the blank panel I started with for these cards.  I made this one, especially so I could show you what the background panels looked like with only the color on there.  I used a Stencil Pal with a couple of dried baby wipes to put the color on the glossy cardstock along with a bit of Gold Alcohol Ink, then kind of squiggled the Stencil Pal up and down slightly to get the zig-zag sort of look.  So this is very close to what my other two panels looked like when I started.

I have an older Anna Griffin Flourish Die that for some reason, makes me think of a fancy sleigh when I turn it sidewise.

When I put this first card together, I put the scroll flourish a little higher so that I would have room to add the poinsettia at the bottom, but I wasn't too crazy about the look so for the other card, I left it off completely.

I love it when I can mix whatever product with whatever other product to get a result I love.  In this case, I used the W+9, Be Merry Stamps and dies for the sentiment.  I heat embossed it onto Stamper's Select Vellum and colored the backside of the banner with a Copic marker in BG49.  I wanted to stay with the fun and non-traditional color palette, so I die cut the holly leaves from Gina K Designs, Blue Lagoon Cardstock.  The dies are called Jolly Holly from Spellbinders but I don't think they are available any longer.  I like them because they can also be embossed for more dimension.

I used Lucy's Glossy Eggshell Pearls for the berries and clear tack foam tape for the vellum sentiment panel.  I'm not a huge fan of the clear tack foam tape, but it worked pretty well in this case.

As you can see, there's a ton of dimension on this card.  Since the edges hang off, I will put it in a 5 x 7 padded envelope when I mail it, but I do love the bright fun color scheme.

Since I had a lot of backgrounds already made, I decided to do a couple of other fun color combinations for you. 

Green and Gold with Pink Berries is always fun, especially when you might be expecting red berries.  I'm sure I'll do some red ones before Christmas, though!  The background is emerald green with gold alcohol inks.

It is really hard to get a good picture of the backgrounds, so I took a slightly different angle and focus on thi8s image to give you a better view.

I think in this pink and gold, you can see the gold a little bit better in the background.  The cards are all the same design, I just changed up the background with each card.  I also tried a variety of things to create the berries from Nuvo Drops to actual little pearls.  I love the glossy pearls from Little Things From Lucy's that they carry at Simon Says Stamp.

Here's the whole group of six cards that I made for today's Keeping Christmas Blog Hop Post. There are lots of stops along the hop, so be sure to visit all of the other blogs and leave a little love for everyone in the comments section.

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden (Off This Month)

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger (You are Here)
Nancy Guse (Off this Month)

Here's a little reality check for you - There are only 4 more Keeping Christmas Hops left this year so you better start trying to get some cards put together for your stash.  Come December 1st, you'll be ready to go.