Christmas in July

Happy Friday Friends!

So as some of you know I work for Micheal's as a scrapbook instructor.   Well we got a new store manager and he is awesome!!!  He asked me to do some displays for the store from their Christmas in July project sheets.   Here is the bag I made.  He told me I didn't have to follow the project sheet, but I need to make the project.   Here is what I did.:

Supplies:
Stamp:  Recollection North Pole set  (reindeer)
Ribbon -  this was just some red and silver ribbon Michael's had in their Christmas section
Embossing powder - Here I used detail.  Read on why I wish I hadn't.
Paper is from Brazzil's (I think)  --  note to self get better about tracking exact supplies
White card stock
Markers - I used momentos this time around
Ink:  Versa Fine - Black   and Tim Holtz distress ink - Antique Photo
Ribbon - the red snow flake ribbon I bought when JoAnn's was clearing out Christmas stock last year.
Plain Gift bag.
EK Success Circle cutter  -  love this little gem!
Heat emboss tool

Instructions:
I measured the bag space for the size to cut the snowflake paper.  It was 7 3/4 X 5 1/4. 

Then I took a piece of White card stock and stamped my reindeer.  (Now so I would have extra reindeers and since I was already inked up, I stamped 4 on the 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of card stock.   I stamped them using the Black Versa Fine ink.  This is my favorite go to ink pad.

With my stamping coming out so clear I made sure I set it aside for a few minutes and made sure it was dry before I began coloring. 

I cut two of them out in a 4" circle.  (A 4" inch circle around each reindeer).   The other two I set aside to cut out later.  I will probably cut out the actual reindeer shape once I color them in.  But that will be another day.

For this project I only used one of the circle cut reindeer's.   I color him in with markers.  I chose Memento markers.  I have several different types of markers and depending on color I want to use, or technique I choose a marker.  I colored him in, in the white areas, I simply left it uncolored.  With the embossing over him, he looks fine.  Again I set him aside to make sure he dried and wouldn't smear.

OK, now I took my embossing stamp pad and stamped all over my reindeer image.  I then took my embossing powder and covered my image.  I did this over a sheet of paper, so I can easily put the excess back in the jar.  If you do it over your craft sheet, it tends to stick and it's an extra mess to clean up.  Now I picked it up with my tweezers and using my heat tool I melted the crystals for my first layer.  You know it's ready when the image comes through clear with vivid colors.   However, make sure you go over the non-color area too.   I repeated this process for about 5 or 6 layers. 

Why you ask... well this is the part where I tell you I wish I hadn't used fine embossing powder.  I was planning on doing a cracked glass technique and only had fine embossing powder.  I thought oh this will work the same just probably have to do extra layers.  OK, not that simple and lost my interest in layering quickly.  :-)   Still I continued on.   I put my project in the freezer to help with cooling off and was hoping my paper would curl more so I would get some good cracks.  Again ---- don't use fine embossing powder.

Next step.  I took it out of the freezer and proceeded to crack it.  It did OK, but not the look I was going for, it was more subtle.  The great thing about art, you can make it look like it wasn't a mistake!  :-)   So now I got out the distress ink and with a make up sponge wiped it over the embossed image.  Trying to pull out some of the cracks.  In real life the cracks are a little easier to see than in the photo.  

Oh what I didn't tell you was that with my first layer of embossing ink the paper seem to thin and I didn't like that look at all.  It made it look messy with the blue paper behind it.  Thus was my next step came into the picture.   I cut another piece of white card stock to put behind the image.  Everything that was suppose to be white was white again.  :-)   Glued it on the diagonal and trimmed with ribbon.   I attached my ribbon with my tape runner.  Then tied the handles with the red snowflake ribbon to bring out a little more of the red in the project. 

Time to get going on your Christmas projects.  I would love for you to share with me!