Add Some Gold for the Sparkles Christmas Challenge

Welcome to the February Sparkles Christmas Challenge. The theme for this month is Add Some Gold. After you finish here, I hope you’ll hop over to the challenge post and see what inspiration you can find from the rest of the design team.

Here’s my card:

Non-traditional colors for Christmas are definitely my thing. For this card, I used Blackberry Bliss and gold. However, this specialty DSP (designer series paper) did not start out as Blackberry Bliss. Here’s a shot of the original DSP:

This DSP is from a couple of years ago and, after finishing this card, I am down to the last 6×8 inch piece of it. I’ve already made a few cards using this paper and the Night of Navy ink pad. For this card, I thought I’d try out the Blackberry Bliss.

Measurements:

The BlackBerry Bliss cardstock base measures 5-1/2 inches by 8-1/2 inches, s ores at 4-1/4 inches. Since I wanted to create a landscape card, the card winds up being a tent card.
There’s a gold foil mat that measures 5-3/8 inches by 4-1/8 inches. Foil is more expensive, so I cropped the middle of it out using a stitched rectangle die. No one will know there’s anything missing.
The top DSP layer Measures 4 inches by 5-1/4 inches.
I trimmed a piece of Blackberry Bliss DSP for the envelope flap. This piece measures 2-1/2 inches by 6 inches.
I used scrap blackberry bliss cardstock for the sentiment panel and matted it with a piece of gold foil. Since I am so frugal with my foils, I actually had a piece previously cropped and ready ti be use.
Using some rolled up glue dots, I attached the gold thread to the Blackberry Bliss ribbon. The result was a single bow with both the ribbon and gold thread.

Coloring the DSP

While I am fairly certain there are other ways to color this specialty DSP, I used a sponge brayer and the Blackberry Bliss ink pad.
This technique just takes patience. Start by lightly rolling the inked brayer back and forth on the DSP. I always have a paper towel handy in case I need to dab off some ink.
I think I put 3 or 4 layers on this DSP. It is much easier to add more ink on the DSP if you let it dry completely between layers.
That’s it. Big, big change with just a little bit of effort.