This is a card created at the recent workshop using pan pastels and indigo blue stamps.  It is an 8″x8″ card, mat and layered with the finished picture.  I have put it in stages to show the picture building up resulting in the end card and this can be reproduced in exactly the same way with a picture of your choice to highlight the card.

Cut a circle out of card or post it note and stick it where you feel you want your moon.   Using a blue tint pan pastel and artists sponge, sweep the blue over the card from side to side including the stuck on circle, leaving some streaks of white showing.

Tear a strip of paper roughly into a wavy pattern, use this on your picture to create mounds of snow and layers of cloud.   Starting with the sky, from the top of the page place the strip of paper and again using a medium blue pastel on your sponge, dab it along the rough edge of the strip of paper, sponging more blue at the sides to create a cloudy shape.  Then starting at the bottom of the page with a darker blue, again dab your sponge along the rough edge, moving it about to create mounds in a thin line.  Right at the bottom on each side, dab more blue to create a fore ground.

Take the paper circle off the page leaving a white circle, then using the card the circle was originally cut from, place over the white circle on your page.  This will allow you to colour the moon without blemishing the rest of the picture.  Using a yellow pastel, and a small sponge, lightly colour in the circle with a circular motion but don’t go right to the edge of the circle.

Now take off the circle stencil and with a lighter shade of yellow gently sponge around the thin white border left round the circle, smudging it slightly into the blue to give a hazy effect.

Take your stamp and ink it with memento ink, I’ve used a brown one rather than black.  Place the stamp so that you have the branches silhouetted across some of the moon.

I used another indigo blue Christmas stamp but only the part with swirls on it to decorate the sides of my card.  It had to be stamped twice each side, carefully matching up the pattern.

At this stage you can decorate it as you wish, I placed royal blue gems on some of the snowflakes at each side, layered in on top of navy blue card with navy tulle ribbon placed over the corner with a bow.  First mat your picture onto the blue card, place your ribbon then stick it all onto your 8″x8″ card stock.

I hope I’ve managed to explain it clearly, and I am at another workshop with Glynis at CJ Craft in Edgeley on 14/9/13 and will post one of the cards made from there next time.   Keep carding my crafty friends.

This card is my first attempt at stamping my own background.  I used a mixture of Indigo Blue stamps, “Itsy Bitsy Backgrounds”, “Bubble Background”, “Honeycomb Background” and the “Ledger Background” stamps.  All were stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa ink and then I use Pan Pastilles to get the creamy look to give it a sepia appearance.  My decoupage topper compliments the colours and the added bit of purple is picked up with the ribbon, matt and layering with side edging and a few odd ‘splodges’ from the Ledger stamp in purple ink.   I increased the depth of colour on the cream with my pan pastilles here and there to create a yellowed effect.   Not bad hey?  I picked these ideas up from classes with Jo Price at C J Cardcraft in Edgeley, Stockport, see their website http://www.cjcardcraft.com   In fact I’m at another class there tomorrow, 7/9/13 and hope to continue learning new techniques.  Watch this space!