Stampin' Up "Christmas Pines" Card

As it's so cold outside today, it seems only right to be making winter/Christmas cards.

It feels as if I have thrown a lot at this card, but actually now that it is completed, it doesn't appear too fussy.

I started off by using two shades of Tim Holtz Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass and Salty Ocean), blending them to create a background with darker edges and lighter central area.  I then splattered the "Chipped Sapphire" shade to lift the background.  Once dry, I glued it onto a black background.

I stamped the sentiment, using StazOn ink on white card then used the first two distress inks to create a wash of colour.  Once dry, I then die cut the sentiment, using Memorybox die called "Stitched Rectangle Layers" into a rectangle shape.

I then turned my attentions to die cutting.  Using Stampin' Up "Swirly Scribbles Thinlits dies", cutting two wreaths in black card.  I threaded a wreath from the two shortest ends of the sentiment rectangle and glue them together so that the wreaths framed the sentiment.

Using Stampin' Up "Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies" I cut  6 branches of fir tree in a silver glitter paper, two seed heads in black card, two fir cone bases in black card, 2 fir cone top layers in silver glitter paper and arranged and stuck them down to the left hand side of the sentiment.  I then cut two layers of the white bow, layering with foam pads.  I then cut another bow in the silver glitter paper and layered it over the top.

Finally, I used a small snowflake punch to cut the snowflake shapes in a white velum.  I stuck the snowflakes to the card with a touch of glossy accents and then topped with a small turquoise gem stone.