A Pair of Blue-and-Silver Angels for "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"

Season's greetings, art buddies! Today I have for you not one but TWO festive projects as part of the "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" contest going on over at the Lost Coast Portal to Creativity. Wanna play? Enter your rubber-stamped Christmas- or winter-themed projects by January 6, 2017 at 5 to midnight for the chance to win a gift certificate to spend in the Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda rubber stamp stores!  The more entries the better the prizes, so round up all your friends and join the most festive art party of the year. Check the RULES to ensure your entries are eligible to win!

The first blue-and-silver angel I have for you is this 6.5" x 10" piece called "Pax Hominibus." You may recognize its text, especially if you're Catholic, as being from the "Gloria" in the Latin Mass. It means "And peace to people on earth."

It was made by stamping the Angel with Globe stamp from Lost Coast Designs and embossing it with superfine detail black powder.

The globe the angel is standing on was cut from marbled paper and pasted in...

The text above and below the stamp was handlettered...

The angel's robe was colored in shades of creamy blue pencil...the lettering was painted with Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire...the border was colored with silver glitter gel pen, and the hair with metallic gold colored pencil and gel pen...

...while the wings and globe were underpainted with silver acrylic and topped with Twinkling H20s in Icicles, a holographic-glittery white. This was super-hard to photograph, so here is a detail shot that hopefully hints at all the sparkle (you know I love me some sparkle!):

And a closeup of the whole piece, which I have also entered in The Three Muses' "Frame" challenge:

My second angel project is an artist trading card.

This piece was done entirely by stamping and masking, using gray inks for the whole card. First, I stamped the angel from the Fortune Women set and masked it off. Behind her I stamped the blackletter text from ATC Text Set 1, then overstamped the corner with the Black Flourish stamp. Down the right side I stamped the Clover Scroll Border, and along the bottom used letters from the Old Typewriter Alphabet to stamp the word "Hark" (she's a herald angel--get it?).

After the stamping was done, I colored the angel's robe with Distress markers in rich shades of blue. When it was dry, I went over it with dimensional gloss medium to give a 3D clear raised (and/or permanently wet?) effect. The scrolling on the border I went over with dimensional metallic silver paint to give a raised effect there as well. I edged the whole card in metallic charcoal pigment ink, and it was done!

Hope you get a chance to enter--and WIN!--the holiday challenge at Lost Coast Designs! Go check it out, and good luck.  :)

Noel Angel: A Stamped Study in Silver & Gold

Seasons' Greetings, arty friends! Today I have a Christmassy piece of art featured over at the Lost Coasters Review blog as part of Lost Coast Designs’ “It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas” rubber stamp art contest. Just enter your holiday-themed art featuring rubber stamps from any company, and you’ll be entered to win a gift certificate for MOAR STAMPS from the incredible catalog of Lost Coast Designs rubber! I am a fan!

So...on to the project and How To Mayke It.  ✨

I love the medieval/Victorian Gothic vibe of these Lost Coast Designs stamps so much that I had to combine them, with metallic silver and gold, for some holiday glitz and a bit of historical feel! Here's the piece:

↑  This is actually a scan of the piece, which doesn't capture the depth and sheen of all the metallics very well, so here's a photo taken in different light too, so you can get more of a feel for how the piece looks in person, when you move it in the light.  ↓

Here's how I made it.

First I took some acid-free scrapbook paper that was printed with a sort of linen fabric-looking pattern, then brayered on some thin layers of silver and gold acrylic paint diluted with iridescent medium. This gave a rich-looking shimmer to the background. (You guys know, if you read my blog at all, that I love me some shimmer on almost every piece! Right? You KNEW that.)

Next, I got out this awesome angel from the Fortune Women set, inked it up with black permanent ink, stamped it...

  

...and then cut out a mask of the figure. I placed the mask over the stamped image using repositionable glue, and got out this fab arch from the ATC Misc. Set 6...and stamped right over the masked image.

Next, I retrieved some (slightly used) washi tape from under the table where I’d stuck it (don’t judge me) and masked off the area below the gothic arch where I wanted to stamp this Clover Scroll border, which I love SO BAD:

Here's what those impromptu masks looked like before stamping. I threw in this photo just because some people do find weird pix like this to be helpful, and I’m a helpy kind of girl. 

But enough about me. So after adding the scroll border, I pulled out my trusty Rustic Alphabet Set with its strong period feel, composed the word NOEL, and stamped that once in my permanent black ink. Then I overstamped the word with embossing ink, offsetting it just a TEENY bit to provide a hint of shadow, and embossed it in gold powder.

Now it was time to add silver and gold gel-pen accents to the angel, border, and arch. And the piece was finished...

...Except for putting it in a frame, like so.  😊  

Et voila!--a shimmery angel in gold and silver. Wishing you and your family a very happy (and shimmery) Noel!

It's Christmas in July! Tutorial: Sparkly Holiday Card

It's Christmas in July over at Lost Coast Designs, where our friends with the quirky and amazing stamps are thinking about fab holiday projects to make this winter, from Christmas cards to tags to all manner of festive delights. Wander on over and have a look, get your ho-ho juices flowing, and start thinking about what cards you want to make and send this year.  :D  Enter your projects to win a shopping spree!

My contribution to the festivities is being featured on the Lost Coast Designs Portal to Creativity today! It's this baby here:

This card is all shimmer, sparkle, and glitter. You might have to trust me on that, because it's SO hard to photograph. In person it looks quite rich and festive.

Here's how I made it:

1) On black cardstock, I stamped this leafy frame from LCD, and embossed it with gold powder. (Oooo...shiny!)

2) I then colored it with two shades of green metallic gel pen. There was already some serious light leaping off the page!

3) I took my figure, this angel from Lost Coast Designs, and stamped it on white stock with a gloss finish so that the focal point would have maximum strength against the busy frame. After fussy-cutting the image out, I highlighted the angel with gold and silver metallic gel pens, and gave her (his? its?--I think angels are supposed to be genderless) garment a light wash of glistening powder in Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold. S/he/it was now blinding white and shimmery, which is just how you expect an angel to be in real life, right?

4) To maximize the Christmassyness (and yes, I make up words as a matter of habit; don't judge), I added some berries made of red metallic gel pen and red Stickles. I mounted the angel with some dimensional foam so s/he/it would pop off the background even more in all her/his/its white brilliance.

5) Next up, I needed a sentiment. I wrote the words "Christmas Time" ('cause she's holding a clock--get it? Christmas Time?? A HA HA HA) with a bullet-tipped embossing marker and embossed the words in more gold powder. (Oooo...shiny!)  (You will notice that I was a good girl and remembered to use my pounce pillow so as not to get little flecks of stray powder glistening where they were not wanted. [purrs in self-satisfaction] )

6) Now I mounted the whole thing together on a layer of sparkly black glitter paper, then on still heavier plain black cardstock, the edges of which I embossed with black powder. (Oooo...shiny!!!!)

The finished product looks something like this.

So...what are you making for Christmas?  :)  Come on, tell me in the comments below. I wanna hear.

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Love,

Paula F
...following the Muse of Mixed Media