Lavender Winter Wishes
by Janet Katz

I love images of snow-themed things – snowmen, snowflakes, snow-covered hills, trees – you get the picture. So the Wintertime Sentiments Clear Stamps and Die set was great to use for a variety of Christmas cards. The snowflake frame has so many possibilities. I decided to go for a soft lavender look. First I swiped my paper with my anti-static Embossing Buddy to prevent powder from sticking everywhere. Then, I inked the frame stamp with Milled Lavender Distress Oxide ink and inked and stamped it several times (using a stamp platform) to get the best impression. Next, without moving anything or cleaning my stamp, I used a foam applicator and daubed Dusty Concord Distress Oxide onto the hexagon portion of the stamp and a little onto the snowflakes and stamped that. I ended up with this great lavender ombre look. I still wanted to give it some shine (again, I didn’t move anything). I cleaned my stamp and then inked it with Versamark and stamped it on top of the Distress Oxide image. Then I quickly sprinkled on clear embossing powder and heat embossed it.  Finally, I used the Winter Sentiments die and cut it out.

 

 

Naturally, I wanted to use this to frame one of the 14 sentiments that comes with the stamp set.  I also wanted to give it some dimension. I stamped my sentiment on a scrap piece of white cardstock with a dye ink, stamped again with Versamark, and heat embossed with an iridescent glitter embossing powder. This was the rare time I didn’t use my anti-static bag as I didn’t mind extra glitter on the paper. I used a pale ink to stamp the frame around the sentiment, simply to give me cutting guidelines. With the pale frame image as a guide, I cut the sentiment out and used foam adhesive to pop it up in the center of my clear embossed frame.

 

 

I found some textured lavender vellum in my stash and cut a piece 3.75 x 5″. I was able to hide little dots of glue in the texture of the vellum and glue it down to a white card base. I adhered the Winter sentiments frame with the sentiment on top. Finally I added some dusty purple self-adhesive Autumn Fairy Jewels at the center of the snowflakes for a little added sparkle. Hope you are enjoying your holiday crafting as much as I am.