Christmas Candle

Hello!  

Today is my first day to submit a challenge to one of my favorite stamp companies, Flourishes LLC. 



 I LOVE their stamps as they are very detailed and fun to color, something which I am teaching myself to do using any variety of media, be it COPICS, watercolor pencils, ink and SU Blender Pens, etc.  Flourishes stamps are also romantic and evoke a warm feeling of home and garden, and who doesn't love that?  Not that I'm not exploring other stamp companies and will soon start entering their challenges and contests too, but Flourishes was the first mailorder company from whom I ordered first and I will always have a place for them in my heart and craft room.

But enough about that, on to the card.

It is a sketch challenge at Flourishes and a technique challenge at Splitcoaststampers, the technique being to create polka dots instead of cheating and using printed paper.  So I made my background paper by stamping it in three colors of ink (red, green and dark mustard) using a brand new pencil eraser.  Then I stamped over them with a faded script background stamp and embossed that in shiny gold ep, though you really can't tell how much it sparkles in the photo (must invest in a light box and better lamps).  On top of all that I sponged the edges with more dark mustard and also Vintage Photo Distress ink.  So guess what - I now have glitter in my two ink pads.  Isn't that nice.  And now I've learned to sponge BEFORE embossing because the gold embossing powder tends to come off a little bit.  Hope I don't mind glittery flecks in future projects!  

In keeping with the polka dot theme, I punched 1/8" red dots using a hole punch and glued them to the centers of the snowflakes on the green embossed panel.  Colored the image with Copics, watercolor pencils and a little chalk, popped it up on dimensionals and finished everything off with two ribbons and a pearl brad, plus a teensy bit of yellow glitter on the flame..  Oh, and a couple of layers of scallops under the green panel (though the sparkly gold one doesn't show up well).  

What do you think?   Another one to add to my Christmas stash - yay!!

Have a lovely day and happy crafting!