Hi there stampers!  This week at TGIF Challenges we are getting into the holiday spirit with our “holiday prep” challenge.  I can’t believe that September is almost over and it won’t be long until I will need to get serious about planning my Christmas cards for this year.  In the meantime, this was a perfect challenge to get those holiday ideas flowing.  

I have an obsession with background dies and up until this latest Holiday Catalog Stampin’ Up has not had one.  All that changed with the new Blizzard die and I am in love with what a beautiful background of snowflakes this die provides.  I cut a panel of vellum with this die and saved the snowflakes for embellishments on this card and other cards.  I then used the new Shimmer Paints in Bright Copper, Champagne Mist, and Vegas Gold to watercolor a panel of watercolor paper to mimic the challenge design.  Instead of using three types of DSP as featured in the challenge picture, I used the shimmer paints to create a three color background.  The shimmer from these paints are so beautiful.

I then die cut  the rectangle shape from Thick Whisper White and Gold Foil using the Frosted Bouquet Thinlits.  I painted the white die cut with Frost White Shimmer Paint so it matched the background.  I then colored some rhinestones with those shimmer paints and a few of the vellum snowflakes from the Blizzard die.  

I adhered the watercolor background to a side folding A2 card base made from Whisper White and then added the vellum piece on top that was secured with the sentiment die cut.  I then finished the card off with the colored rhinestones and snowflakes.

I hope you join us this week with your holiday inspired cards!