Sneak Peek: Festive Frame

It has been as hard waiting to reveal my holiday set to you as it is to wait for someone to unwrap a gift you think is just perfect for them! I've only been stamping with "Festive Frame" for about a week now, and it is already one of my favorite sets! You will love being able to create elegant layouts for all your holiday projects in no time with this double bordered stamp and its many coordinating sentiments. The oval window was designed for framing your favorite photos, images, and greetings. Here is my first project, I love sending out photos to family and friends at Christmas but I want to make a handmade card, too. This uses a favorite of me and my oldest son from five Christmases ago as the focal point: all the flowers, greenery, and borders you see surrounding it is ONE stamp! :)
I stamped the frame in Memento Tuxedo Black onto Pure Luxury White and colored with Copics. Recognize that poinsettia? It matches the one in "A Year of Flowers" and looks gorgeous popped up over this frame!) My very favorite color combo for these uses Copics Strong Red and Cardinal, shown here. After I finished coloring the images, I colored in the oval and rectangle borders with Pale Olive to match the Fresh Asparagus card base. Don't you love how many layers it looks like that adds?! I cut out the window (or to save time cutting around the edges of the overlapping piece you could just a cut photo over it) and adhered my pic (3x5 is perfect!) behind it. I punched out the little "Joy" greeting from White and Good as Gold Pure Luxury CS and popped it up in the bottom corner, then finished it off with some adhesive nail heads and a large flourish punch.

But how about putting it in a real frame instead of on a card? This is a 5x7 frame I bought for $2 from Wal-mart, I cut the Fresh Asparagus CS to fit and adhere the stamped frame and photo to the middle (removed the glass so you wouldn't see a glare in this pic) Not only is this beautiful for decorating the house, but makes a lovely, personal holiday gift, that's doesn't cost a lot but your recipient is sure to treasure!

My next card shows how wonderfully the new frame works with so many of our other Gina K sets, here I've popped up some pine cones the corners from Gina's "Winter Foliage", and stamped a simple scene inside the window using the mountain image from Theresa's "Happy Camper". This time I colored the two borders with Cardinal to match the Cranberry Tart base, and the poinsettias are left white with a bit of Mignonette and Yellow Green Copics at the centers.

The mountain is stamped in Antique Linen Distressing Ink, which I also sponged into the oval space to really contrast the snow white of the mat around it. I made a mask of the frame on scratch paper first , cut out the oval center, placed it over my stamped frame and sponged the ink around the edges before pulling the mask away. The trick to making it look even more dimensional is to trace around the underside of the petals, greenery and oval border with a pale marker (here I used W-1 Warm Grey) Isn't that a cool effect?! Not counting the cut out pine cones, this is also a two layer card, but shading, sponging and coloring the two borders, it looks like you have six! This took me SO much less time not having to do all that cutting, layering, extra adhesive and I don't have a bulky card to mail, I love it!

This is one of several greetings in the set. When you keep your stamped images very muted like this, stamping your sentiment over them in a contrasting color will allow the scene to show through but still keep the greeting easy to read.

Last, I wanted to share how you can cover the poinsettias and make it a more year-round nature themed or masculine project, here I used an image from "A Year of Leaves", colored with Copics and cut out to make a card perfect for autumn. You can see how complete the oval window looks with nothing but a sentiment inside it: "Celebrate the beauty of the season" is included in the new set and fits in window whether you position it horizontally or vertically, you will love the versatility the oval layout gives you with your wider or taller sentiments! This sentiment will take you well past the fall and winter, and would be beautiful by itself on your springtime cards.

I stamped the frame in Vivid Coffee Bean on this new Pure Luxury Caramel Leather cardstock, I wish my photo captured the texture of this gorgeous paper, you have to see it to believe it! With the frame in brown ink, it looks like tooled leather. (The back side has a smooth texture so you can get another look from this paper if you desire.) I colored the borders orange and yellow and cut out the middle of the window so I could sponge my inks inside over the greeting. These beautiful amber colored drops are part of the new Gina K Neutral button assortment, these particular buttons have no holes and are flat on the back so I attached them with glue dots. Not couting the leaves and flourishes, this is also two layers. I like how this sample also shows you don't have to do a lot of coloring with this set to get great results! :)
And here is the inside. Swap out the greetings inside and out, and this design would make a fabulous birthday or Father's Day card. :)

For even more inspiration tonight, check in on our CenterStage Spotlight Designer, Diana Queen who has prepared a project for us,
and then our GinaK Designer's joining in on the Preview blog hop:
Gina Krupsky
Cathy Tidwell
Cindy Lawrence
Erika Martin
Emily Giovanni
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Lynn Mercurio
Nina Brackett
Theresa Momber

Thank you for stopping by!