Christmas in July how distressing

I don't normally even think about Christmas until the end of October - well I didn't until I started card making two years ago, now come July the Christmas bits come out of storage the glitter the glitz the bling.

It's my birthday this week and my lovely dad told me last week that he had transferred some cash into my bank account and that I was to withdraw it and treat myself, so Sunday morning saw me browsing the aisles at the craft shop that recently opened at a local garden centre. I closed my ears to the protracted sighs of my hubby who couldn't understand why I stood for a good twenty minutes staring at all the lovely Tim Holtz Distress inks without moving. Well it was simple I couldn't afford to buy them all so I was making a carefully considered choice as to which I buy now because I can't live without those in my stash and which can wait until a later date. I finally let my head rule my heart and picked the ones I felt would be the most versatile and useful to me over the next few weeks. 

As I have recently got into distressed effects and shabby chic I decided that 'tea dye' and 'antique linen' were just what I was looking for mind you 'tumbled glass' and 'concorde' also slipped into my basket when my heart staged a rebellion against my head.

I also picked up a new 'Marriane' dye to cut some flourishes and a lovely stamp of  a music score, having several friends who are either musicians or heavily into music it was a done deal as soon as I saw it, just for something different to the embossing folder that I already use for a number of my cards. 

A few greetings die cuts and a pack of card for stamping and we were soon on our way home, just in time to settle down to watch the Formula One. 

Well of course being like a child with a new toy I had to create something immediately and came up with this card 

Lots of paper tearing and inking involved. The afore mentioned music score embossing folder was pressed into service (excuse the pun) using a piece of parchment paper from Crafter's Companion I inked the inside of the folder using a copper ink pad before I ran it through my sizzix and then added to the aged effect by inking the surface with the 'tea dye' ink pad. I found some creamy pearlised paper in my stash and along with a piece of vellum with a gold script design, and a Papermainia paper from a Christmas pad I bought when I first started making cards and had left over from a batch of Christmas cards I made for work, I set to systematically tearing inking and generally distressing the papers. A lovely lacy doily from Wild Orchid was inked with 'antique linen' and then the whole medley of papers were layered up. 

The topper is pyrimage from dovecraft and has a lovely sheen to it, the colours fitted perfect with the soft creams and golds I had chosen to work with. The greeting was a left over from last years Christmas Cards.

I was initially a bit stuck for the flower embellishment, I only have roses gardenias and poppies from the wild orchid range and whilst the roses fitted the bill the other types of flowers didn't. Not being one to give up easily I went into the garden and removed the head from one of my Christmas Roses - I leave the heads on until all the seeds have scattered so I quite a collection of different hellebores now. Having removed the head I carefully took it apart and using the petals as templates drew them onto parchment paper and then worked this with a large ball tool to get the right curvature before assembling my Christmas rose and adding the stamens. I am quite pleased with the results but it was incredibly time consuming and my next order with Wild Orchid will include some of their hellebores. The flower spray was finished with two flourishes cut using the Marianne die and the greeting then had a bow added and was tucked in the spray at an angle before the whole thing was stuck to the bottom of the topper panel.

I really enjoyed playing with my new craft stash and I will be trying the music stamp out tonight as I have received an order for a card for a drummer for his birthday - I might even get to use the 'tumbled glass' and concord ink pads on that off to make a start now.

I am entering this card into the following challenges.

http://craftuscrazy.blogspot.com/     Christmas in July and/or distressed vintage

http://inkyimpressionschallenges.blogspot.com/  Distressing

http://lilredwagon.blogspot.com/  Christmas in July 

http://movingalongwiththetimes.blogspot.com/ Christmas in July 

http://tuesdaythrowdown.blogspot.com/ Christmas in July
http://thepapervariety.blogspot.com/2011/07/its-christmas-time-at-tpv-and-something.html Christmas in July