Sparkly Seasons Nutcracker Card

I don’t know about you but, I kind of drag my feet through the Fall holidays.  I want to create for and enjoy each one so, I find it hard to ramp up my creating for Christmas until Thanksgiving is over.  This year that gives me about 27 days to get everything done.  I like that — I prefer working with a deadline.

Today while enjoying another relaxing day at home, I pulled out Sparkly Seasons to create something seasonal.

The nutcracker in this set appealed to me right from the start and I’ve had this idea floating around for some time.

This clean and simple card starts with a thick Whisper White base,

The idea was to create a mantel scene like you would see in someone’s home at Christmas.

Three nutcrackers were stamped in Archival Basic Gray.  Then using a Blender Pen, I colored each one being careful to create some shading.

Tip: shading is most easily achieved by laying down color in the areas where you want darker color.  As the color that you’re putting down lightens, go back and color the areas where you want lighter color.  Once dry, you can add more color to the darker areas, if needed.

Their boots were colored with layers of color using the Basic Gray Stampin’ Write marker.

For their’ crowns, I painted on some Versamark ink refill and then heat embossed in gold. Then to add just a bit more detail, using my Two Way Glue Pen and Dazzling Diamonds, sparkle was added to their hair and beards.

Next, using the Hearth and Home Framelits, I created my fireplace.  After die cutting my piece of Whisper White, I used my snips and cut out the mullions (crossbars) from the window.

Then, I stamped the wood and greens from Festive Fireplace and die cut them with the Festive Fireside Framelits.  Again, I used my snips to selectively cut away the fire from the logs.

I added detail to the pine cones in the greens with a Early Espresso Stampin’ Write marker.  And the Two Way Glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds were used to sparkle the greens.

More holiday to come!!

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Create something today,

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PS:  One month until these stamps retire!

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