Christmas Cards in July for The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog

Hi everyone and welcome. It's time for another challenge over at the The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. Cec is your host for this one and she has called it 'Christmas Cards in July'. "If you are like me, you are anxious for 2020 to be over and done with. To speed things up let's pretend Christmas is around the corner even though it is only July and get a start on creating shabby chic or vintage inspired cards. This challenge is all about cards so please save other Christmas creations for later.'"

As ever, the Design Team will choose their top four picks, with the winner being invited to join us in a Guest DT spot at The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog and three additional outstanding entries will receive Top 3 Badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and follows the rules will be entered into the draw to have the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

With Eileen Hull's new Chapter 3 Sizzix Scoreboards dies released at the beginning of July it seemed like the perfect time to use one of them to make the first of my Christmas cards this year. Here's what I came up with;

As you may now be able to tell one of Eileen's new designs is a mitten shape. The die is officially called 'Box, Mitten' because you can actually make a box with it but I used just the main shape as it fits perfectly onto an A6 (roughly US size A2) card.

Now for the tutorial; I started with a piece of cheap textured watercolour paper and applied some Dina Wakley Media Acrylic Paint using a brayer - you can see how the textured surface stands out where the paint has caught it.

To enhance the vibrancy of those colours without adding lots more paint I used some coordinating Izink Pigment Inks by Seth Apter. You only need to dab the tiniest amount on using the built in brush and then scrape it in different directions using a palette knife or similar - because it dries relatively fast and is permanent it's worthwhile doing small sections at a time to get the colour exactly where you want it. The beauty of these inks is that they lay over each other revealing the under layers without creating mud.

Now it was time to add some 'va va voom' by going in with little touches of 'Purple Haze' - this really started to enhance the greens, yellows and blues beneath.

And for even more impact I added another colour, again in small patches layered over the other paints and inks - doesn't the addition of those two brighter colours make an impact on the overall look.

I ran the paper through the Big Shot with Eileen's die and cut out a mitten shape - you'll also spot that it cut some heart shapes too - more of that shortly. I also cut a mitten shape from matboard - you could stick the paper onto the board before cutting but I wanted to add some stitching so kept the two layers separate for now.

As part of the design the die will cut a wonderful zigzag shaped strip - I cut some from Buff painted paper, even hanging on to the ends with the straight edges.

After inking the zigzag edges with some Acorn Archival Ink I stuck them over the paper mitten, trimming the edges to fit and covering some of them with Glossy Accents and Dry Glitter.

To add further detail I stamped stitched lines onto some areas and hand stitched through others before gluing the paper mitten onto the matboard one for stability and strength.

Now, remember those hearts that were cut from the spare paper? Well I cut a bunch more from it in the four different sizes on the die and covered them with Glossy Accents. To create a second mitten I covered a piece of matboard with plain cotton calico fabric and embossed them with the Tim Holtz 3D Embossing Folder 'Elegance'. The edges were again aged with more of the Acorn Archival Ink and I glued the glossy hearts over the top.

I kept the colour scheme neutral so as not to detract from the colourful mittens, opting for layers of tea stained copier paper, book page, pattern tissue and plain cotton calico fabric. Die cut lace was blended with the Acorn Archival Ink to match.

 Here's the second mitten when added to it's card base;

To finish each mitten some cream cotton thread was wrapped around the cuff area and I attached a couple of snowflake charms from Linda's store (distressed with a little of the Buff paint). With some die cut holly leaves and little pearls added as an accent the mittens were ready for their backgrounds.

Here are some close ups of the two finished cards - I thought the second one could even be appropriate for a Christmas birthday, wedding or anniversary;

So that's my take on the theme 'Christmas Cards in July'. My hugely talented team mates have also come up with their own Christmas cards for this challenge so make sure you hop on over and check them out HERE. And remember to link up your own shabby chic or vintage cards to be in with a chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes that's up for grabs.

Thanks for visiting,
Jenny xxx

Products used to create these cards are available from The Funkie Junkie Boutique and are listed/linked below.

Chapter 3 Eileen Hull Bigz L Die - Box Mitten

Seth Apter Izink Pigment Inks by Aladine

Dina Wakley Media Acrylic PaintsRanger Archival Inks
Tim Holtz Cling Stamps - Stitches

Tim Holtz Distress Stickles Dry Glitter - Clear Rock Candy

Ranger Glossy Accents
Antiqued Bronze Snowflake Charms - Set of 5

Antiqued Bronze Snowflake Charm - Set of 5

KAISERCRAFT Pearls - Self Adhesive - Pearl