Merry Monday #276 Joy and Peace

Happy Merry Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend! Today we're bringing you a little holiday joy with this week's Merry Monday Christmas Challenge!

This week Colleen has challenged us with a cozy inspiration photo! I was SO wishing that I had a charming little set of candles for my card today! Instead, I decided to play off of the frosty window.

To begin, I created my "window" by taping two square nestabilities together using washi tape so that I could get a uniform shape multiple times. I die cut five of the same thing so that I could glue them together to create a shaker window. I didn't end up making it into a shaker, but I'll explain that later. I used vellum as my material for the glass of my window, because I wanted it to look frosty. I also gave the entire piece a generous spritzing of Frost Shimmer Spray for that snowy feel. I set that aside to dry for a bit. The vellum warped quite a bit because I used such a heavy hand with the spray! LOL! It ended up working out okay and flattened as it dried, like watercolor paper.

You can see how frosty and sparkly it looks here! I just love how it turned out. Because I used so much spray with the vellum, it made it so you couldn't really see anything shaking behind the window, so I just left it as is. The wreath is stamped using the Deck the Halls stamp set and then die cut using the coordinating dies. I did a little "rock and roll" technique on the pine boughs for some extra color and dimension. I used Simply Chartreuse Ink and SU!'s Old Olive. The berries and bow are stamped using Pure Poppy ink. This has become my favorite red ink. The background it dry embossed using a snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder.

The sentiment is embossed using Antique Gold embossing powder onto Pure Poppy cardstock.  I also added two strips of Spring Moss card stock at the bottom for added interest and color. A trio of sparkling clear sequins finish it off. I hope you'll join us this week! Thanks for fluttering by!