Last November I joined in on the Mixed Media Christmas Card swap that Tracy hosts. I totally had fun with this! I just started and kept adding and adding and adding until I felt it was done. There were only ten cards to make so it wasn't too bad to reproduce. I just worked through it one step at a time.
For the card base I cut a piece of retired Bashful Blue card stock 6-1/4" x 9". With the 9" side against the top of my Simply Scored I scored at 4-1/2". For the main image part I started off by cutting a piece of Mixed Media paper 4-1/4" x 6". I watered down some Whispering Turquoise DecoArt paint and just quickly brushed it over the entire piece of paper and let it dry.
I die cut some snowflakes from the retired Northern Flurries Strip die from Stampin' Up, placed those on the paper, then misted the card stock with Island Indigo ink mixed with rubbing alcohol. Since the snowflakes were just a mask I picked them up and reused them on the other pieces.
Next I took a Stampin' Sponge and some Night of Navy ink and sponged around the edges of the paper. I also stamped the greeting from Christmas Messages in the lower left hand corner in Night of Navy ink. Then I coated the whole thing with DecoArt Decou-page. I had to be quick when brushing over the greeting so I didn't smear the ink to much, but I love how the ink smeared around the edges of the paper. Next I spritzed the panel with some retired Silver Foil Smooch Spritz.
For the tree I cut hacked out some triangle shapes from Mixed Media paper. I really do mean hacked. I was't even attempting anything perfect or straight or the same length. I had taken a variety of retired Christmas DSP and cut random width strips of multiple patterns. I added decou-page onto the paper, and layered the strips, allowed it to dry, then trimmed the strips even with the Mixed Media paper edge. I added some black lines with a charcoal pencil and adhered the tree onto the panel and cut the bottom edge of the tree even with the edge of the panel.
I used the retired small star punch from Stampin' Up on some Silver Glimmer Paper to punch the star and glued it onto the top of the tree. Finally. I took some thinned down Titanium White DecoArt paint and used an old stencil brush to splatter the paint all over the paper. After allowing the splatters to dry I deemed these as done and adhered them onto the card front with some Multipurpose Liquid Adhesive.
As I mentioned before, this was so. much. FUN!!! I really am enjoying exploring mixed media. Plus it helps me use up some of my stash hoard of retired Stampin' Up supplies.
