Falling for the Holidays - Joyful Card

   Back with another entry for the Falling for the Holidays 2022 {BYSHC} Linky Party. 

 So, I bought this 12x12 paper set from AB Studio, called Breeze of the Forest. It’s clearly very ethereal, fluid and full of free flowing designs with a winter and/or holiday theme. It’s available through Etsy and AB Studios site. It’s a very thick paper which I thought could be useful for water mediums. This paper coupled with watching mixed media artists create more “artsy” holiday cards, inspired this card. I think I also saw a recent video showing the technique I used below on a standard card as well.

I started by cutting a piece down to card size. I then pulled out inks which coordinate or match the colors in the paper… more of a magenta/plum color and a green. I placed the paper in my Misti and pulled out Unity’s Fa-La-La-La-La kit (September’s Kit of the Month) and the Christmas Over/Again background sta mp. I first stamped the poinsettia with the “magenta” color onto the card. Then, I cleaned the stamp and stamped the background stamp onto the poinsettia stamp and in turn onto the card. Now, with words, you need to be aware that it stamps the mirror image, which I was okay with (and actually the sentiments in the background stamp go upside down sometimes anyway). I loved the look, but I wanted more…

So, I then proceeded to add by hand leaves to the poinsettia and used my watercolors to add some color loosely. There were also branches already in the paper I added color to as well. I took a charcoal pencil and using the side of the pencil I added very rough outlines to the larger image. I took a green pen and gold and silver Posca pens and randomly outlined and added filler to some of the letters in the poinsettia. I added outlines to the leaves as well. Finally, I stamped the background stamp around the whole card and added spatters. I stamped the sentiment from the kit, fussy cut it out as well as a few flowers from the paper set. Finally, I added twine, backed it with paper from the kit and added some dark green enamel dots, and called this messy card done. Like all mixed media, I can’t tell you how much fun I had pulling this together!

Hope you enjoyed this messy artsy holiday card, for a complete change. Clearly, this will need to go to someone who enjoys mixed media… let me know if that’s you and I’ll send it along!

Join in the fun and link up some pretty holiday cards… and check out all the beauties already submitted! Remember, the Falling for the Holidays 2022 {BYSHC} Linky Party also has a great list of sponsors and giveaways. See rules in the attached blog post!

Thanks for stopping by… till next time, happy crafting!