"No Red, She Said" - Jingle Belles, Week 7

Wheeeee! I am so honored and excited to be a Guest Designer for the lovely ladies over at Jingle Belles this week! WOW!! Seriously, I am over the moon with joy and happiness. If you hear any unexplained laughing and giggling from somewhere...it's probably me.

So, the idea that I presented to Lauren & Stef (as you probably already know) was "No Red, She Said". It's soooo easy to get all caught up in the traditional "colors of Christmas". But, what if you challenge yourself to make a really un-traditional Christmas card? Using absolutely NO red...at all? Or, heck, what about no green while you're at it? And use colors that you typically wouldn't associate with Christmas...like BLACK? Shocking idea? Or insanely brilliant? MWUAHAHHAHHAH!!! Hmmm...maybe you shouldn't answer that.

I really wanted to break out of the Christmas color mold, make a really yummy card and still make it look VERY Christmas-y. Hope you think I succeeded!



I had to show a close up view because (once again) you just can't see all the shimmery goodness of the card from my lack of photography skillz. It is just so super pretty!

There's lots of technique-y stuff going on, but the chipboard letters are painted with black acrylic paint (let dry...duh!) then coated with glossy accents (let dry again!) then just certain parts are glossied again to add the glitter. Pretty! To do the background of the tag: stamp with black archival ink first, then work all your different distress inks in your coordinating colors. Then spritz the whole thing with Perfect Pearls mist (or mist of your choice. You can also mist first and let it set before stamping/inking). (I know that I was inspired by a tag that Tim Holtz did, but I totally did mine in a different way.)

I hope that you'll all play along this week...and ALL the weeks!! HAHHA!! It has been SUCH a joy for me to play along and be challenged by this wonderful group of FAB-U-LOUS-LY gifted gals. Click on the Jingle Belles banner at the top of this post or on my left side bar to be taken to their home page. *mwah*

{Supplies:
Paper: Cardstock (SU), Manila Tag (freebie - not sure where it came from)
Ink: Archival Black, Distress Inks (Ranger)
Stamps: Music Background (Hero Arts)
Paint: Black Acrylic Paint (Adirondack - Ranger)
Color Medium: Perfect Pearls, Heirloom Gold (Ranger)
Gloss Medium: Glossy Accents (Ranger)
Accessories: Chipboard Letters, Button, Bell (Tim Holtz - Ideaology), Pearls & Rhinestones, Twine (SU), Crinkled/Hand-died Seam binding (Nicole Maki)}

All my best,