Valley Oak Paper - Cardmaking designs by Cecilia Huster

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Get Your Skates On

Cecilia Huster

I created this card for @thatcraftygolden’s Sharing Christmas Hop. The prompt was to create a set of 4 coordinating cards. When I saw that the Spellbinders Small Die of the Month of July was Skating Into the Holidays, I had my idea. Said and done!

These days figure skaters use colorful gaiters over their skates so they match their outfits. No more boring white or black skates! I wanted to use pattern paper for the skates. I settled on a Graphic 45 paper pad, Let’s Get Cozy Solids and Patterns. You can never go wrong with Graphic 45. With those decisions made, everything else fell into place.

Die Cutting

These are die cutting heavy cards, particularly as I’m creating 8 skates. See the cut list and labeled die set photo for help.

Take your time finding the part of the pattern paper you want to use for the skates’ top layer. Unfortunately the die is solid, but I used the base layer die to frame the part of the pattern I wanted to highlight. Then I drew pencil lines, and swapped the base die for the top die.

Skates

The skates are really easy to put together, with no fiddly bits. There’s a base layer, that I cut out of white Accent Opaque 100 lbs. It shows up as the tongue of the boot and part of the heel. On top of that comes the pretty top layer, and the sole of the boot. 

The blade has tabs that you glue to the back of the base. You could actually leave out the blade and end up with a vintage-style lady’s boot. 

Boot Laces

I cut the boot laces out of Recollections White Glitter Cardstock. There are four parts to the laces:

  • The lacing through the holes is all one piece. 

  • Then there’s a cross-shaped part, that’s meant to go around the ankle. 

  • The U-shaped die cut corresponds to the ends of the boot laces. 

  • Finally the bow goes on top of that. 

Background

I’m using the same Graphic 45 pattern paper for the backgrounds and I’m embossing them. My embossing folder is called Holly Flourish. It’s also from Spellbinders. I mist my pattern paper with my Tim Holtz sprayer before dry embossing it. It’s a 2D folder, and it’s on sale now for less than $5. 

My backgrounds started out as A2 and now I’m cutting them down by a quarter inch length and width wise. That will give me a nice white frame. 

Then I’m stabilizing the backgrounds with a backing of Accent Opaque 100 lbs. I cut them half an inch smaller than A2. 

Even though I misted the paper, it cracked. To disguise the pale cracks, I’m going to use matching inks. 

I’m comparing the pattern paper to my Pinkfresh Ink Swatches:

Sentiments

For my sentiments I’m using another July set. It’s called Spellbinders Christmas Magic Sentiments Clear Stamp and Die Set. 

I’ve selected Merry Christmas and Sending Joy and I’m going to stamp them with the same Pinkfresh inks that match my pattern paper.

Next I’m stamping subsentiments. I’ve selected From Our Home to Yours and To You and Yours and I’m stamping them with Archival ink in the color Red Geranium. It’s a great stamping ink for Christmas crafting! I like it so much that I got a regular size ink pad after I tried it in the mini ink pad. 

Decorations

Turning my attention to the decorations, I’m starting by putting together the large berries. Then I glue the centers to the silver roses. I also add some of the white glitter berries to the red poinsettia berry clusters. 

I’m adding some frost, in the form of white pigment ink to the poinsettias and the greenery.

Then I assemble the poinsettias. I die cut 9 of them and stacked them two deep. Then I added the white glitter berry clusters to the centers. 

I felt that the white ink wasn’t quite festive enough, so I tried three different treatments on my single layer poinsettia. 

  • Texture Paste Sparkle is glossy and has little silver glitter flecks. That’s what I have on the top petal. It’s very pretty, but it doesn’t help to lift the red paper off the blue background. 

  • On the next petal, I tried Grit Paste Snowfall. It has more body and presence than the sparkle paste. 

  • On the third petal, I tried white Perfect Pearl powder. That has enough white pigment and mica to help lift up the ends of the petals from the background. 

So then I added the Perfect Pearl powder to most of the decorations. 

Assembly 

These are the color combinations I’m going to use. Dark blue skates on a medium blue background, grey skates on a red background. Then the opposite pairs: medium blue on dark blue and red on grey. I like those combinations! 

Medium Blue Skates on Dark Blue

Starting with the medium blue skates, they’re going on the dark blue background and with a blue Sending Joy sentiment. 

First I stabilize one of the skates with an additional layer of Accent Opaque on the back. That’s going to be the front skate. I’m going to use foam tape under it, so it’s gotta be sturdy. Then I adhere the background to my card base. Once that’s dry, I can start composing my card.

First I’m placing some of the silver berry twigs under the skates. That’s where I’m going to place the sentiment. For the twigs I’m using glue, but I’ve added tiny bits of foam tape behind the berries to lift them up from the background. Then I adhere the sentiment with foam tape on top of the berry twigs. I’m nestling the subsentiment under the left berry twig. 

Then I add bits of greenery to the top of the card, where I intend to put the poinsettia. Next I glue down the skates. And then the poinsettia partly on top. I also add some more bits and pieces to the top left. 

Dark Blue Skates on Medium Blue

Moving on to the dark blue skates on the medium blue background with a red Merry Christmas sentiment for a pop of color. 

First I add the medium blue background to the white card base. Then I stabilize one of the skates with a second base layer. I glue it to the back. I’ve added foam tape to the back of the stabilized skate and I adhere it to the other skate. The front skate is a little bit lower and slightly to the left. I place them like that because I want the pretty lacing and bow to show.  

Just like on the other blue card, I use the large berry twigs under the sentiment. When they’re in place, I glue down first the sentiment. And then the sub sentiment.

Then I use some spruce and grey leaves at the top left before I glue down the skates. I add the poinsettia and continue adding more greenery under it. I felt that this card needed something more at the bottom right, so I added the single poinsettia near the toes. 

Then I pulled in the other blue card and added some more details to both. When I was happy with the blue cards, I moved on to the red and grey ones. 

Grey Skates on Red

On the red background, I’m going to use the grey skates and the grey Sending Joy sentiment. 

First I add a second base layer to the back of the top skate. Then I adhere the background to the card base.

On this card, I’m placing two spruce twigs under the sentiment. I’m adding a couple of grey leaves to the top of the card, so the red poinsettia doesn’t get lost on the red background. I place the poinsettia on top of the leaves and then I nestle the skates underneath it. I add a sprig of white berries under the sentiment toward the bottom right. That’s to balance the poinsettia cluster at the top left. 

I’m using foam tape behind the grey Sending Joy. Then I place the subsentiment. 

Finally I add some more white berries to the top center.

Red Skates on Grey

Finally moving on to the grey background, I’m using the red skates and the red Merry Christmas sentiment. I’ve already put together the skates with foam tape. Now I’m holding them in place with a magnet, while I compose the card around them. 

I’m starting by gluing down two spruce twigs below the skates. I’m also adding some red berry clusters to that area to lift up the sentiment. Then I add the poinsettia with some foam tape in the middle. For some reason I placed the poinsettia under the skates on this card. Don’t ask me why. I also add some leaves and berries to the cluster around the poinsettia. Apparently I adhered the skates and the sentiment off camera. I add a few more decorations before I adhere the subsentiment. And that’s it for the card with the red skates. 

I looked at both of the red and grey cards and added some more details to them. 

And this is how they all turned out. The prompt was to create 4 coordinating cards and I feel that I achieved that! Overall they’re very similar, but each card can stand on its own. I added some pearls to further emphasize the diagonal composition of these cards. Super happy with how they turned out! 

Supplies Used