Thursday 28 November 2013

A Colourful Stroll Through Shimmer Forest

Today I spent some alone time walking through Shimmer Forest. As the snow softly fell, landing on my heavy winter cloak, I admired the delicate pearly flake trees where the snow fairies were known to make their home. The fresh snow crunched underneath my boots of +70 agility as I moved silently through the forest. Against the snowy white backdrop, the different coloured trees created a beautiful pearlescent rainbow, and it wasn’t hard to see why the snow fairies chose to live here.

Hold onto your potion satchels - there’s a lot to show here. I made this card set by first stamping all the white pieces of card stock with the tree from the Unity “Warmth and Winter Wishes” itty bitty and heat embossing it. I then created a couple masks and proceeded to colour the background and tree using Distress Inks and a blending tool (choosing colours based on the challenges I was entering).

After the backgrounds and trees were coloured, I sprayed some Perfect Pearls mist onto my craft mat and using a paintbrush, flicked it onto the background for a snowy look. I also “painted” the inside of each tree with it as well for some added shimmery exp points. The sentiment on this particular card came from the My Pink Stamper "Biggie Christmas Sentiments" set.
This particular card will be entered into the following challenges:
Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge #187: Green Christmas


I created the top border with a snowflake edge punch and, not wanting to waste anything, glued the punched out snowflakes around the trees, earning me +55 completionist exp points. The sentiment on this card is from the My Pink Stamper "Christmas Wishes" set.

The inside are all the same (so I won't bore you with pictures of each one), but match the outside of the card. The shape was cut with Art Philosophy, using the same paper as the top border.

The snowy hills were cut using the Give a Hoot cartridge and some shimmery white paper. The sentiment on this card is from the same set as the tree - Unity's "Warmth and Winter Wishes".
This particular card will be entered into the following challenges:
Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge: Anything Goes


The envelope for each card was stamped with a snowflake stamp using the same colour of Distress Ink that the tree was inked with. I'm not sure how I feel about this colour combination, but I wanted them to all be really different and I only have so many Distress Inks. This sentiment is from the Unity "Ornamental Season" itty bitty.

You really have to catch it in the right light to see the Perfect Pearls.
The final touch was three gems which I stuck on each tree for even more Christmas bling. The sentiment on this card was stamped using the Echo Park "Holly Jolly Christmas" set.

This card set will be entered into the following challenges:
Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long: Christmas Gift Set (I hope it’s okay there are more than 3 cards)


Then...as a total experiment, I created this card box following the tutorial I found on the Lawn Fawn blog. I only have diamond shaped dies, so my window was a diamond instead of a rectangle. I just used some clear plastic that was the packaging from a set of clear stamps. 

I did run into a few issues (buuuuuuut this was intended as a “test box”)

1) I will not use paper from the DCWV “Shimmer Stack” again. I chose it because I don’t have very much patterned paper that has stuff on both sides, and it's really thick, which I thought would be good for a box, but it looks like crap when you fold it. The edges all crack and you can see the white core. Blech. That got me -77 presentation points.

2) As you can see by the bottom mangled reinforcement, I had some issues with that. I don’t really know what the best adhesive to use is to get the “start” of the twine stuck in there. I tried my liquid Scotch white glue, but it didn’t hold. Then I got the great idea to use hot glue, but I managed to glue down the reinforcement making it almost impossible to wrap the twine around. Siiiiiiiiigh. I peeled it off as best I could, and was left with this mangled mess that barely works.

Ah well...lesson learned. My next one will be better.

After all the chaos surrounding the Winter Festival preparations, it was nice to decompress a little amongst the beauty of Shimmer Forest. Unfortunately, I did run into a couple of rogue ice-storm bandits, but being the prepared guildy that I am, was able to dispense of them quickly with a few well aimed arrows. Weapons - never leave home without ‘em.

~ Guild Master Crystal ~

23 comments:

Fabiola said...

wonderfull Job , what a gorgeous and stunning set for Christmas , so glad you play with us at CSAYL for our party challenge and blog hop, biz

Winnie and Patty said...

This is a lovely set of cards! Thanks for playing along with us this week at Speedy Fox & Friends blog challenge.!

Sue B said...

Ooh these are gorgeous! what beautiful designs… I love the white embossing and the snowflakes look very pretty! I like the white snowflakes against the red… this card is perfect for our 'use some red' theme this week! :-)
Thanks for joining us at Divas by Design this week!
Hugs Sue B xx

Kris said...

Lovely set of cards.

Scrapper Myra said...

Lovely series of cards.

Janine said...

I love the set of cards you created - the trees are really pretty but also remind me of Easter eggs - two occasions in one!

Gwen said...

What a great variety of cards! Love all the colors and details!

Ruby said...

This is a wonderful set of cards. I love all of them. It will make a great gift for someone.

Katie S. said...

I love love love these!!

Heather said...

I know I say it every time I come here, but I am totally entertained by your adventures. No one else seems to notice the story, but that's what I look for when I come over. : ) I think you definitely jumped some levels with this gift set; I saw bonus exp points everywhere. LOVE that you used the snowflakes from the border punch to add to the design of your cards. I grant you double however many points you amass for that one. So glad you were able to play along with our final CSAYL challenge of the year (and it is definitely OK that you made more than 3, that was just a minimum requirement).

Cynthia said...

Lovely set of cards... each different in its own way!

Angeline Choo said...

WOW! Love that shimmer in your cards.. so frosty!

Gail said...

Nice set of cards - thanks for coming by Speedy Fox and Friends this week - tomorrow is a new challenge - hope to see you there! Enjoy your week! Gail SR DT - SFF

stampingbowd said...

Super cute trees!!!! Love the heat embossing, it really makes them pop! Thanks for playing along with Speedy Fox & Friends this week!

Gaylynn said...

Great set of cards. Pretty!

Unknown said...

Hi. My first time here but I will be back. What a sweet story beginning. Love fairies an such. Your cards are just beautiful!! That's all I can say - just wonderfully beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Lovely!!

Hazel said...

Thanks for entering these delightful cards for my CHNC challenge extra for November - hope to see you again soon. x

DianeMoneyGoolsby said...

Hi, Crystal: Your card set is so pretty--beautifully done! Glad you participated in our "Snow [or Use only White]" Challenge.

The Simply Create Too Design Team will be taking the remainder of December to spend time with our families. Please join us again on 3 January 2014 for our next challenge and Birthday Bash. We'll have lots of crafting fun!

Merry Christmas & Happy 2014,

Diane
Simply Create Too Design Team Member
http://DianesDigitalDesigns.blogspot.com

wendyp said...

love the different color combos! Thanks for playing along with this week's There She Goes Challenge!

Miwa said...

Gorgeous cards, the design rocks! :)

Lindsey said...

So pretty! The shimmer is perfect!

rachel said...

what a delightful set of cards - such fun!!! Thanks for joining us at Crafty sentiments this week and good luck x

debby4000 said...

What a wonderful set of cards and such a beautiful snowflake tree image, love all the different colours.

Thank you for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.

luv

Debby

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