nearly monochrome ...

 Hello my friends. I'm back with another Christmas card. This was inspired by something that Leonie was making on Hochanda last week. The final card transpired from the patterned paper that I used.

So I started with a piece of patterned paper from HOTP. These are papers that I've had for years from the years of QVC. I knew I wanted to use the stag so I went for a paper in neutral hues.

I stamped him in potting soil archival ink and then again on another piece of darker patterned paper and fussy cut the stag without the ears, hooves and antlers. I also stamped the snout on another scrap from the background paper.

From the same stamp set, I used the small deer, bare trees, fir tree and buildings to build up a background scene. I stamped these in second generation ink.

I darkened the edges with distress inks: brushed corduroy, gathered twigs and walnut stain. I then put a moon mask and dragged some ink from it. 

Using the edge of the fir tree I stamped some grasses to ground the deer etc and to add depth to picture.

I then attached the fussy cut stag and added glossy accents to eyes and hooves after I had clear embossed the antlers.

Then I started working on the embellishments. They are fussy cut from another HOTP sheet. I double embossed the stamp and added some silver glitter embossing powder to the edges for a twinkle. Once it cooled, I cracked it to add more interest.

I also embossed the leaf and pine cone adding same silver powder to them too.

I matted and layered the main image on dark roast coffee card, another patterned sheet from HOTP and again the coffee card. I went round the edges with dries clear cosmic shimmer glue and sprinkled with glitter jewels. I added the embellishments and some raffia and gypsophila to finish off the card. As a last touch I used a yellow sparkle pen on the windows and a clear pen on trees, roofs, and on the ground to give an impression of glistening snow.

All the stamps used are from IndigoBlu.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Simon says stamp Monday challenge - autumn

Craftyhazelnut's patterned paper challenge - anything goes

Word Art Wednesday - anything goes

Happy Crafting, Theresa xx