The Card Concept {Retro Holiday}

Hello everyone and welcome to a new challenge at The Card Concept.  This challenge we have a theme of Retro Holiday.  I had the hardest time deciding which way to go with this challenge but I finally settled on Retro looking ornaments and used the Vintage Ornaments II Collection of stamps and dies designed by Dawn McVey for Papertrey Ink.

There are no special techniques or anything here.  I used a piece of green shimmer cardstock leftover from a wedding album I did several years ago for the background panel. I prepared my surface for heat embossing by using a powder tool on it then stamped the ornament outlines onto watercolor paper using Versamark with Antique Gold Embossing Powder. Once I heat set them, I stamped the interior pieces with Hibiscus Burst Ink and Tropical Teal Ink and misted it just a bit with water before stamping it into place. For the highlights I used Summer Sunrise Ink. This just allows the edges to soften a bit to get a better blend of color.  Each of the different parts of the ornament is a different stamp so you can use a variety of colors or just a couple of colors. 

I die cut some gold foiled cardstock using the Tim Holtz Holiday Greens Dies as my tree branches.  I stamped a coordinating "Merry Christmas" Sentiment from the Beautiful Berries: Winter Stamp Set in the same gold embossing powder onto Aqua Mist Cardstock and attached that with some 3D Foam Tape.

This was really simple to create.  I have the original version of Vintage Ornaments from Papertrey and I'm thinking I better get that set out and create some of those as well.  If you have time, create the ornaments ahead of time. They don't have to be heat embossed, I just enjoy doing that. You can make several so that if you need to pull a card together quickly, you can. When I'm working with a specific set, I always make a few extras because until I lay the design out on my card front, I'm not sure how many I might want.  This is also good to do in case you mess one up which I have been known to do from time to time.  Any extras that I don't use, I just tuck into the stamp pocket with the stamp set.  

Be sure to stop over at The Card Concept Challenge Blog to see all of the projects from the Design Team Members.  There are some fantastic cards from my teammates.  

Day Five of the We Love Dawn Blog Hop

I am doing a very quick post for today's card and the Blog Hop in support of Dawn McVey.  These are all things I have used recently and I did do any new techniques.  I had several elements leftover from Day 1 of this hop (Spruce & Sprigs) and I wanted to try to come up with an arrangement that would use them. I also wanted to combine Pinefeather Cardstock with Hawaiian Shores because I've seen that combination on another site and thought it was really lovely and somewhat unexpected!

I started by die cutting a stitched rectangle panel from the Pinefeather Bitty Big Plaid and then attached that to a top folding Stamper's Select White Card Base and then cut a smaller stitched rectangle from Hawaiian Shores Cardstock and adhered that on top of the Plaid.  Next I die cut three of the berry wreaths from Pinefeather Cardstock and adhered them, but offset from each other to make the wreath appear fuller.  Then I simply placed my elements into a pleasing arrangement and placed Press N Seal over the top to keep the arrangement in place. When you pick up the Press N Seal, the arrangement stays in place. Simply flip it over and apply liquid adhesive (Ranger Multi Medium Matte) to all the parts that are visible.

When you flip it back, you can move the piece of Press N Seal (including the arrangement) around to determine best placement for your greenery. Laurie Willison (Soapbox Creations) came up with this little trick and it's fabulous. Here's a link to one of her posts where she has some videos linked up.  I set a couple of acrylic blocks on top of my arrangement while I let the bottom layers of greens attach.  After a couple of minutes I removed the blocks and the Press N Seal and then added Ranger Multi Medium Matte to any of the pieces that were still loose and tucked them in one at a time to be sure everything was attached and secure.  The banner is one from Wine Bottle Tag II and is stamped with a sentiment from Vintage Ornaments II.

This was a perfect solution to use those extra elements in a card.  I only have one little branch left and I stamped it kind of wonky, so it can go in the garbage can.  This would be a great card for anyone who loves a bright pop of color.

Thank you for stopping by today.  There are just two more days left in the We Love Dawn Blog Hop and I plan to have something for each day.  Be sure to come back and to check out all of the gorgeous cards in the Link-Up over at Papertrey.