Gettin' Down and Dirty!

Hey there inky friends!  I'm finishing up on my Christmas Cards this weekend and wanted to use the candle in the Happy Birthday Stamp Set as a holiday candle.  I thought I'd pull out my Gelli Plate so that I could make some fun backgrounds.  This first card started out with some bright, bright Distress Oxides and then I just couldn't deal with the super bright colors so I had to tone them down a bit by pulling in a little gray. 

To create my background I created several layers: 

Layer 1:  I placed three tiny drops of each color (pictured above) onto my Gelli Plate and used a bamboo scribe to spread the colors in a linear formation.  I then placed the cardstock over the ink and lifted quickly. 

Layer 2:  After that, I spread some Ivory acrylic paint on my Gelli Plate with a paint brush and used the same bamboo scribe tool to scribe some scribbles onto the plate.  I applied the paper again to lift that layer. 

Layer 3:  Next, I spread some more Ivory Acrylic paint onto the Plate then used the largest star stamp in the set to lift some of the paint.  Once satisfied with the design, I lifted the impression onto the paper. 

Layer 4:  I placed three tiny drops of (a gray color) Distress Oxide onto the Plate then added a few drops of Ivory acrylic paint and spread it around on the Plate.  I used the same star stamp to lift more star impressions.  Once satisfied with the design, I lifted this impression onto the paper. 

Layer 5:  I spritzed the paper with water to help some of the distress oxide bleed with the acrylic paint, then used my heat gun to dry the paper.  I brushed a little Ivory Paint onto the paper (just a few stripes here and there) and then used the scribe to scribble off some of the paint. 

The next layers were embellishing layers of glossy accents, microfine glitter and mini star sequins. 

After the background was complete, I stamped the stars and the candle, doodled some drippy parts for the candle and colored with Copic markers.  I added additional glitter and gloss to make it shine.  I brushed some watered down acrylic paint over the colored images to tone them down a bit and to help them coordinate more closely to the background. 

If you take a peek at the close-up, you'll notice the layers and the yummy embellies.  

 I selected some fun and festive fibers and some shiny silver edged ribbon to finish the card off! 

Adding some little blingy elements helped bring more light to this card.  I love the grays and the pops of yellow. 

Thanks for hopping over!  I hope you enjoyed this project and it inspires you to pull out that Gelli plate!  :)  See you around soon!