Merry Christmas- A Winter Walk with Snow Crystals

Happy Saturday Everyone!  Julie here, sharing a Christmas card designed with Artistic Outpost  (AO) stamp sets, Winter Walk, Sleigh Ride and Grunge Elements along with ODBD FiligreeFrames Dies, ODBD Snow Crystals Dies and ODBD Christmas Collection 2013 6x6Paper Pad (all available at Our Daily Bread Designs).

I decided to use an embossing technique known as “Cracked Glass” to create the panel with the AO Winter Walk image. This technique has been around for a while but I have only tried it a few times before and love the way that it looks like antique glass.

To create the cracked glass panel, I stamped the AO Winter Walk image onto white cardstock using a slate gray distress ink, then I colored the image with water based markers and re-stamped over the initial stamping, continuing to color and re-stamp to build up the color.  

I then applied embossing ink over the entire panel, added glassy glaze embossing powder, heat set and built up two more layers of the embossing ink and glassy glaze embossing powder.

Once the embossing powder cooled a bit, I put the panel in the freezer for a few minutes, then gently bent the panel to create the “cracked glass” effect.  

I added the “Merry Christmas” sentiment from the AO Sleigh Ride stamp set using the large splatter image from the AO Grunge Elements stamp set for a bit of distressing.

I created the background panel with a few pieces of ODBD Christmas Collection 2013 Paper, added a bit of distressing to the taupe panel with AO Grunge Elements corner stamp before mounting both onto espresso cardstock, adding taffeta ribbon and mounting the layered background onto the cherry cardstock base.

I die cut and embossed the largest die from the ODBD Filigree Frames Dies, added the cracked glass focal image along with the sentiment and mounted onto the card front with dimensional foam.

I created the snowflakes with the new ODBD Snow Crystals Dies, used a clear glitter pen to add shimmer and finished off the card with pearls.

I had a great time designing this Christmas card and I hope I have inspired you to pull out your Artistic Outpost stamps and create a project this weekend!  If so, please share with us on our Artistic Outpost Facebook page- we would be thrilled to see your creations!

Thanks for taking the time to visit us today- have a great week!

Designer- Julie Gearinger