A Christmas Bauble

Hello everyone.  Yes, I have finally managed to find my way back to my blog.  It has been neglected lately, and here we are in the middle of December with so much still to do.  Other than more crafty goodies, one of the best things Santa could put in my stocking would be more time!  I daresay that many of you feel the same.

This is my entry for this months Claritystamp challenge, which has the theme of "Trees."  In keeping with the season, I've decided to make a very simple little Christmas project.

Firstly I drew round the outline of my template, then slowly began building up the colour using Faded Jeans Distress Ink with a stencil brush, gently working round and round.  You can see below how it starts out light and gradually builds in intensity.

 

Then I cut out the circle and added even more depth of colour around the edge with the same ink using a mini blending tool.

 

The next step was to create some snow.  This is quite a simple effect to achieve, just flicking water at the artwork and blotting with paper towel.  As you can see, although the technique is easy, it is a bit more difficult to control;  and I have created a blizzard!

 

 

To complete this piece, I used Jo Rice's trick of soaking the mini blending tool with water to lift the ink and make a full moon (Thanks Jo!), then stamped the carol onto shrink plastic, and glued into place once I had shrunk it down. 

 

 

Now it was time to start work on the artwork for the other side.  I brushed Faded Jeans Distress Ink about half way round for the sky.  Using only Olive Archival Ink, I sponged through the Treescape Mask to create a backdrop, then using first, second and third generation ink with the trees from the Bleak Midwinter set I completed the forest before cutting out.

 

 

The two pieces of artwork were then stuck together back to back.

 

 

I then assembled the bauble, adding a few sequin snowflakes to create a shaker effect.  My first intention had been to use some polystyrene beads, but the static kept making these stick to the sides of the bauble, so I had to have a little rethink and move to plan B.

 

 

 

 

Apologies for the quality of the photos;  the finished bauble was difficult to photograph.  If you have time, please leave a comment;  I'd love to know what you think.  Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and many blessings for the New Year.  In spite of all my good intentions, it will probably be 2015 before I get round to blogging again.  Till next time, next year!  Xxx