Hello crafty friends. I’ve got another of my design team cards for the Triangle Trees toppers to share with you, with added shine from some hot foil! One of the things I love about Clarity’s printed papers and toppers is that the images will pick up hot foiling, which just takes the cards up a level. I haven’t done any foiling for some time, so I decided this was the perfect opportunity to get it out again – who doesn’t love a bit of shine at Christmas?!

So, obviously, my starting point was to foil one of the toppers with silver foil, running it through my laminator. As I said above, the printed images pick up the foil beautifully, and as it’s translucent the base colours still show through.

Next was to stamp the family with their presents from the Christmas Joy stamps, together with the dog (who clearly doesn’t want to be left out!) from the Christmas in Miniature set – they’re all part of the Christmas Friends & Family collection. The other great thing about the foiling is that you can still stamp into it with black Archival ink.

I wanted to soften the white background on the topper so brushed ‘antique linen’ Distress Oxide in from the edges. I added one of the Bijou Statements Sentiments before running a black Sharpie around the topper and attaching it to a cream 5×5 card blank.

Love how this turned out – so easy once the foiling was done (and that wasn’t difficult either!) And I’m grateful to have had this in my back pocket to share with you, as my life is currently bordering on completely chaotic! Having had the house rewired while I was away travelling, I’m now on the next stage of renovation in getting the walls & ceilings replastered and then decorated… Phase 1 is the ground floor, so I’m camping upstairs as all the furniture is in storage – the ‘essentials’ from my craft room are crammed into the spare bedroom (and there do seem to be a lot of them!) Add into the mix that I’m about to spend 2 days in Birmingham at the Creative Craft Show (looking forward to visiting the Clarity Crafts stand to catch up with everyone) and life is feeling rather full! I’m just about hanging on to my sanity, but I know it will all be worth it in the end.

Anyway, back to crafting and today’s card. I’m going to share it with a few challenges, starting with the ‘traditional’ theme at AAA Christmas. Then there’s Holly & Ivy and Merry Little Christmas, both of whom are ‘anything goes’.