Welcome to the first of JustRite's Christmas Blog Hop Wednesdays! I have a really pretty image to share with you today--a nutcracker made as a shaker card. He is from the 3-1/4" Vintage Christmas set.
I took pictures as I colored him, so scroll on down if you'd like to see more. To kick off the Twelve-weeks of Christmas Blog Hop Wednesdays, JustRite is offering a free shipping coupon code for September 8-10. Please enter this code into the promotional code box at checkout: CBHOP1. The offer will expire at midnight PST September 10 and is only good for orders shipped within the United States and its US Territories. The full hop list is at the end of this post.
Here I've used Copic Markers in E21 and E25 to color the wooden face. I did tip to tip blending since the area that I needed to shade was small. Tip to tip blending involves touching the lighter marker tip to the darker marker tip for long enough to pull color from the darker marker. It won't cross-contaminate your markers, and it's a great way to get a shadow in an area small enough that you don't have room to blend directly on your cardstock.
Most of the nutcracker photos that I was able to find online had heavily blushed cheeks, so I gave him really rosy cheeks here.
I added some gold here, which I should have continued across the little strips. I did that later on. :-)
Here I've added the hat, eyebrows, and mustache. I have no clue why a mustache would be black when his hair and beard are white, but in almost every picture that I saw online, that's the way it was. Who am I to fight tradition?
And now he's clothed and in his right mind, I think. . . Later on I carried the arm and trunk coloring down just a bit farther to make sure that there wasn't a gap at the bottom when I added a circular sentiment on top.
Hair and beard are colored here--really--even though I'm not seeing it in the picture right now. Trust me. It's there.
How about some blue drama? He needed more color, B32.
To construct the shaker part, I used foam tape. From the bottom up (upside down), I have the red sentiment layer, adhesive, a clear layer, foam tape, Melissa Frances Mica Flakes, and the upside down focal image.
Here I've used a Spellbinders Flourishes Impressability for the background and then wiped Versamark Champagne Dazzle on the embossed parts. It wasn't quite wide enough for my card front, so I put the seam where I knew I would have some gold cord.
Isn't the nutcracker image a fun one? It's a bit brighter than it looks here; the clear layer obscures the marker a bit. Still, I was happy with him.
Would you like to see some more Christmas card inspiration? Check these out:
Debbie Olson (here)
