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Seasonal Mojo

Hi friends! Monday has rolled around again and it's time for a new Mojo Monday sketch!  Verve has a Christmas in July sale going on, so I was inspired to pull out some Christmas goodies and get started.


I really wanted to capture the feel of warm candlelight, but it took quite a bit of trial and error to get there. I started by stamping the candle trio from Light My World in archival ink.  Next I masked off the stamped image and added a layering of squeezed lemonade and fossilized amber distress inks.  My masking wasn't perfect near the flames, so I tried to go in with a water brush and some squeezed lemonade ink to fill in the white areas near the flames, but ended up with too harsh of an edge.  Tried more distress inks to blend it, then some white paint, but for some strange reason the archival ink bled. {insert sad face} and I got some grayish streaks in the background.  I let that sit while I thought about it and colored the flowers and candles with Copics.  Next I tried adding a yellow distress crayon around the stamped image.  Still not the effect I was looking for, so in a last desperate attempt to fix things, I scraped white paint over the entire panel.  Luckily I had stamped the image originally using the MISTI, so could just line it back up and over stamp in black again to make everything look crisp.  Things still looked a bit plain, so I lightly stamped the Merry Christmas stamp in the background for some texture using antique linen distress ink, then distressed the edges of my panel.


Did a similar technique for the season's greetings panel (without all the trial and error).  Then I stamped the single poinsettia, fussy cut and layered it over some tangled golden thread.  The background is a couple scraps of designer paper that I glued together and then embossed and sanded to give an aged look.  Finished off with more distressing on all the edges and some golden pearls for the flower centers.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderfully creative start to the week.

Mojo Monday 457 Sketch
Enabler's List
Stamps: Light My World (Verve Stamps)
Paper: designer paper scraps, cream (Neenah)
Ink: squeezed lemonade, fossilized amber, antique linen, vintage photo distress inks, black archival ink (Ranger), Copic markers, white heavy bodied acrylic paint (Golden)
Accessories: victorian embossing folder (Sizzix), gold thread, gold flatback pearls, sander, paper distresser, MISTI

4 comments

JoAnn said...

Beautiful card. Great save with the white wash and different elements. I like the Merry Christmas stamped lightly in the background.

Nancy said...

I think you are the queen of distressing! I haven't come across anyone else that does it as well as you! You also always pick the perfect tones of color too! Gorgeous card!

Darlene Gabriel said...

Wow........sorry for trial and error you had to go through for this card, but so grateful you didn't give up on it because the final card is gorgeous. You definitely portrayed the warm glow of the candlelight. Thank you for sharing your process. Beautiful card.

Kate said...

It's a lovely card, so glad you persevered. I always think we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes.