Claritystamp Challenge 30 - Bingo

Hello everyone - Hope you've had a great July, albeit that the weather has been a little "iffy" to say the least!  Let's hope August will be a bit warmer & sunnier for those who are having a staycation this year!
So for the August Clarity Challenge 30, we're having a crafty Bingo game by choosing what you'd like to use from the grid on the Challenge website.  So choose a line, diagonally, horizontally, or vertically, or the four corners, or if you're feeling adventurous, a full house using all the elements!
For my project I chose a horizontal line: Stencil, Stamp & Grunge Paste.....and for me it had to be a Christmas card!



Ingredients required:
7x7 Gelli card
Pine needle stencil
Stamps - Unmounted Christmas Banners and unmounted Baubles
Grunge Paste, palette knife & spreader
Clear Embossing powder
Ken Oliver Colour bursts
Inks: Distress - Mowed Lawn/Evergreen Bough/Pumice Stone
Archival - Fern Green/Red Geranium (on special offer this month at £3.98 on the Clarity website)/Coffee/Cobalt Blue
Cool Grey No. 5 Promarker
Coloured twine
Talc
Scissors
Tacky Glue & Glue tape runner
8 x 8 Blank greeting card
So firstly, tape down the stencil at the upper part of the Gelli card and spread the grunge paste across the top with the palette knife.   Using the spreader, drag the paste down from top to bottom through the stencil.  Have some water ready to clean the stencil, knife & spreader as it sets rock-hard if not cleaned off immediately!  Place the Gelli card to one side and leave to dry.....

While you're waiting, make your decorations.  I chose a variety of Christmas baubles, but ended up only using the small ones as I thought the large ones were a little too much for my card, but they'll come in handy for another project...never throw anything away!
I used a leftover piece of card from a Colour Burst session, dusted it with talc and stamped the banner and baubles onto it using the Archival inks, then dusted with clear embossing powder and heat set.

As long as the grunge paste is dry, replace the stencil over it and lightly spritz with water then VERY LIGHTLY puff the Ultramarine Blue & Pthalo Green Colour Bursts onto the dampened branches, then dab with kitchen roll. These little bottles of powder are very intense and you only need a small amount - They are such vibrant colours and great to work with.
Remove the stencil and leave your work to dry naturally.

Now back to your tree decorations & banner - cut them out.

From your chosen twine, make enough little bows for the top of each bauble

When the branches have dried, place the innies over the grunge paste and hold them in place while dusting with a clarity stencil brush & the Pumice Stone ink to colour in the background.  Remove the innies and to intensify the branch colours, I used Mowed Lawn & Evergreen Bough and a Clarity brush to lightly dust over them.  Under each branch, use the grey Promarker to add shadow.

Next mount your Gelli card onto a slightly larger contrasting piece of card using your choice of adhesive (I used my glue tape runner), then mount onto the 8x8 greeting card before hanging your baubles.
Stick on your greeting banner (I used the tape runner for this too), and decorate the branches with the baubles and bows (I thought that liquid glue works best on the grunge paste as it tends to be a bit uneven).
Et Voila!  Christmas card made..............

Don't want to worry you, but there's only 21 weekends left for shopping and crafting before Christmas!
Time to start making those lists for cards and gifts.......
Happy crafting (and Christmas shopping) all xxx