my first DT piece _ Tim Holtz Christmas Carol stamp card

I am so excited to be sharing my first piece that I created for Eclectic Ellapu's  design team.

 I am a pink lady over there and our theme is "traditional Christmas"  I am really looking forward to looking at your creations so please pop along and enter your own pieces.  If you are not a traditional type of crafter than the purple team are doing "anything but a card" the options are endless and both teams inspirational creations are well worth a peak.

My first DT piece :)

I looked through my stamps and decided I wanted to use one of my favourite christmas stamps, Tim Holtz's Reindeer Games stamp.  I love the texture you can achieve with thin one it embosses beautifully for such a detailed design.  I dont have  a huge collection of embossing powders and aalthoughI had tinsel powder in gold and red I don't have a green.  No problems though I just used clear embossing powder that I had mixed with a little glitter powder over pine needles distress ink and voila.

DoDon'tave the right embossing powder clour, no problem just use and ink and clear embossing powder.

I wanted the background to be kinda plain as my main focus is the stamp, but not too plain ;)  I used an ebossalicious folder and brought the pattern out with vintage photo distress ink.  It was a little too dark so i sponged some picket fence paint over and when dried sanded back a little.

Remember there is never a crafty addition that cant be adapted if you go a little heavy, picket fence is great for toning down an over eager hand :)

Although I was really pleased with the stamps on the background it felt a little austere.  I layered some hessian, green ribbon (a bargain at £1 a roll from the range) and some thin crochet trim and placed the stamps over this.  They looked a little lost so I mat and layered the stamps on the same card as the background, glitter card in gold and a gorgeous holly patterned paper from one of my many craftwork Cards pads.  I cut a doily into bits and popped it peeking out of the two end and above the middle stamp.

If your focal image looks a little lost, mat and layering can really help bring your eye where you want it too.

I wanted some kind of pretty embellishments at the top, I had in mind the traditional swags we place over fire places and up banisters.  I made a long chain of jump rings, threaded some ribbon through every third ring and then hung some gorgeous christmas stockings and bells.

I just love brass embellishments,  I have a large range in my collection (magpie) and buy most from Ebay :)

I finished my card with some docraft red sticky glitter dots and a bow i made by wrapping some twine in natural and red.

Bows don't have to be made with ribbon :)

I had a blast making this card and am so thankful to have made the DT over at Eclectic Ellapu. I am honored to be showing my creations alongside the lovely and Uber talented ladies.  Pop over and see for yourself how inspirational their makes are.

Merry Christmas x

I am entering this card in the following challenge: Outlaws Twisted Thursday
Simon says stamp Monday challenge
And Hels Sheridans Ink on my fingers Christmas challenge