Dreaming of Christmas Peace, Love & Joy Deco

Happy December! I'm sorry I haven't been around in a few days. My Muse skipped town for a lil vacay. ;-) I really tried to gather some steam and finish something I had in-process but alas, no steam, just hot air! haha Guess I needed some time off. Sunday I was finally able to focus start to finish on something.

 

So I'm back with a new home decoration to share. It's another 8x8" Deco, this time with a Christmas theme. I based my design on Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2's current sketch, one of two sketches in their challenge I have already played in twice so far using both sketches HERE and HERE. I really like this sketch! I used several collage images from a Gecko Galz sheet that I had printed out a while back already, so this sketch was perfect for multiple images. The pink, green and aqua colors called out to me and said, throw some glitter and bling on us! haha So I did!

My idea for this Deco began with Gecko Galz's blog challenge last month "Peace On Earth", but I didn't get past the planning phase by deadline. So, December's challenge is "In Dreams" and that became the new inspiration for my Deco. I created a representation of one of my Christmases In My Dreams.  I love love love pink for the holidays but Honey practically forbids it. So, it remains just a dream for me to get to decorate in pinks. And purples and aqua and light/lime green -- they are all good! I am getting my revenge through my display art, though! Ha!

SUPPLIES:
Papers: 8x8 Chipboard, Christmas scraps box papers, pink and cream Vellum, DCWV Glitzy Glitter card stock, Neenah index stock
Images: Gecko Galz Little Christmas Magic collage sheet (no longer offered)
Inks: VersaMagic Aegean Blue Chalk Ink
Dies/Punches: Stamplorations Peace Love Joy, Spellbinders Class Scalloped Squares and Rectangles Nesties, Spellbinders Victorian Corners, Papertrey Ink Dangled Stars, Sizzix Sizzlits Snowflake
Stash/Other: Washi tapes, fabric strips, Crafters Companion Spray & Sparkle glitters, Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens, pastel mini brads, iridescent white enamel dots

      

  

  

I'm sharing photos of the dies, glitter card stock and glitter sprays I used. The card stock was very interesting to die cut with. The back of it is very thin rubbery plastic. I had no problems die cutting except for intricate cuts like the Victorian Corners top dies. Had to use vellum for those cuts. Still, I love this glitter card!!! The spray glitters (I also have gold) were ordered from Crafters Companion years ago and never used until now. It took a while to prime the aerosol pump. ;-) They were FUN to use and I love the results on the vellum snowflakes. I do want to keep using them. I have high hopes for the cans as I am fastidiously employing my trick of after-use maintenance of the nozzles.

    

  

This group of photos are process shots of the background which I wanted to include since you can barely see any of it once I finished the Deco. (This covering up is a recurring habit for me...maybe it's part of my style?) I began with a retired Gecko Galz collage sheet, a Stamplorations sentiment die, an 8x8 piece of sanded chipboard and some scraps from my box, a large and small piece of dry-embossed card stock and a piece of 6x6 Basic Grey that I had previously cut a large piece from the center of, which left a frame piece.  I blended some white Brilliance ink over the raised surface of the aqua card stock, added washi tape to the side edges and fabric strips to the top and bottom edges and then centered and adhered my BG frame. I pulled out 2 shades of vellum and die cut some snowflakes which I sprayed with glitter. (The purple ones were first stained with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pen.) I cut the bottom Victorian corner pieces out of some green glitter card and the tops out of vellum. And I added some large iridescent white enamel dots to the snowflake centers.

I die cut the Dangled Stars and loose stars out of the silver white glitter card.I then cut the dangles in half to fool the eye into thinking they are longer by hiding the gap behind my images. I used some cut lines and the extra stars to fill in and accent.

Each of the 4 smaller images I chose were ink-edged with some darker blue chalk ink that matched the BG frame and then mounted onto scalloped squares die cut from glitter card. Pastel pink and green mini brads were added to their corners. Finally, the sentiment die, cut once in aqua card and again in silver card, was stacked and glued onto the larger center image which was framed with green card, bradded and popped up on dimensionals with some more dangle stars added underneath and here and there.

 This Deco came out very much how I'd envisioned it. I think of dancing to Carols or Nutcracker music, decorating, dreaming, making, giving -- all in a pink-accented glow of glitter and stars! {FAINT!} Very much Peace, Love and Joy to me, they won out as a sentiment over "Dreaming of a Pink Christmas". But it was a close decision! Those 3 words mean a lot to me and I wanted to record them in art, because I often say them to myself, like a sort of mantra. As I get older and wiser, I value and find I consciously seek Peace, Love and Joy on a daily basis. They aren't just things that happen to you if you are lucky like I believed in my younger days. They are choices we can make every day, hour, minute. We just have to want to.

Photographing this piece of art was difficult for me. I took so many pics and want to show them because not any of them really capture the shine and sparkle and colors I see in real life. Please forgive all the photos, I know I'm usually pic-heavy and this post is way laden. 

To illustrate how frustrated I got, I even tried taking a pic in the dark with my flash and believe it or not it shows how eye-catching the stars are. Applying them and their dangles was tedious business but I am glad I did it. I also did not realize what a good choice the Aegean blue chalk ink was to edge the images with. A soft yet noticeable definition. And the vellum tops on the Victorian corners look really cool to me.

 Here are some close-ups to further try to show the glittery effects, texture and dimension of the piece. And the lovely lovely images. There is always something I can use from Gecko Galz.

The final look in bright white light. Very glad I made this, I gave a visual "voice" to my words and made my little Christmas dream come true!

CHALLENGES:
1.  Sweet Sketch Wednesday 2: A Sketch or Two for November -- sketch is shown above
2. Gecko Galz December Blog Challenge: In Dreams -- I explain in my post how my Deco fits this theme for me  

3.  Gecko Galz Facebook December Challenge: Home Decor

4.  Art Journal Journey Dec. Challenge: Words & Numbers
5.  Country View Dec. Challenge: Stars
6.  Jingle Belles Challenge JB:19:24: Header Inspired -- I was inspired by the header to use silver/white glitter, frames, texture and dot-shaped mini brads

7.  Crafts Galore Encore December Challenge #70: Always AG
8.  Moo Mania Challenge #205: Use Your Scraps
9.  Brown Sugar Challenge #295: AG

10. Time Out Challenge #149: Celebrations -- Celebrating Christmas and I did not play the option  

11. Outlawz Saturdays Paper a La Mode Nov. 23-Dec.7 Challenge: Favorite Things -- Glitter without the mess and Decorating Christmas with Pink!
12. Cut It Up Challenge #188: Tic-Tac-Toe + Die cut -- I've used several die cuts, see SUPPLIES for list. I chose middle column on the T-T-T Board: My new technique was applying glitter using aerosol spray glitter. My favorite Christmas color is Pink. I used mini-brads on all my images.

13. Aud Sentiments Challenge #241: Christmas/Winter + Sentiment
14. CHNC #466: ACG + Opt. Things with Wings -- I've played the option, the Christmas Fairies in my images are wearing wings.
15. MLCCB #17: December Anything Christmas Goes
16. Sparkles Monthly Challenge #122: It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas
17. Through the Craft Room Door Nov. 26 Challenge: AG
18. The House That Stamps Built Challenge N2719: AG

Thanks for visiting and checking out my art. You are welcome back any time! XOX