Snow Nativity

This is a second ornament card that I made for Technique Lover’s Challenge #TLC193. In this challenge, we were to use a technique developed by Becca Feekan to make an ornate inner border from a corner punch. While I was practicing, I cut various size circles with different punches and used this ornament shape to make a nativity shadow box with this technique.

I cut the ornaments and matching blue and white circles with my Cricut Expression cartridges – two round ornaments with no top (in navy and white), and two ornaments with the top (navy). One of the navy ornaments was used as a base. I cut the top off the other ornament with SU!’s scalloped circle cutter to make a top to “sit on” the decorative medallion. The white circle was used to create a background for my “scene”. The navy circle was used to cut a designer medallion with Becca’s technique.

After I cut the designer medallion, I brushed the medallion and cap piece with embossing ink and embossed with iridescent powder. The result was a glittery, iridescent, circle and ornament cap, perfect for making a shadow box. Before I cut the white circle, I embossed the piece of card stock with the Cuttlebug snow folder to use as a background for my scene. Then I cut the circle. I lightly brushed over the embossing with embossing ink and sprinkled iridescent powder on it to give some “glitz”. From the scraps, I trimmed down one snowflake to represent a star and brushed the edges with gold.

I stamped the Nativity in gold and clear embossed it. Then I painted it with water color pencils and cut the three main pieces with a craft knife and detail scissors. I water colored branches from a Martha Stewart punch for pine boughs to line my “Nativity Scene”

The Ornament

The ornament and holly sprigs are completed separately and then placed on a sheet of designer paper that has been carefully cut and trimmed to the exact size of the card that it will be applied to.

To assemble the ornament scene, the pieces are applied as follows: Snowflake round glued to ornament base. Snow Mary and Snow Joseph and pine boughs added next, laying them in place and checking with the medallion for proper placement before gluing in place. Then crèche was added next, with 1/16^th inch pop dot. Then, the decorative medallion is added with multiple 1/8^th inch pop dots, and the ornament top is also glued in place.

The holly springs were cut from white card stock with Cricut Expression, sponged liberally with bright green ink, and allowed to dry for several hours. I sponged them piece of waxed paper to confine the mess. After the ink was dry, I water colored them and then embossed the veins individually, by hand.

One complete holly sprig was attached with 1/8^th pop dots to serve as a “hanger” for the ornament. The others were trimmed down and leaves placed sparingly around the bottom and next to the ornament cap. The bow was applied and then the green sheet with the entire scene was secured to the card.

The ribbon finishes it!