Holly and Ivy

Here is my first Christmas make of 2015!  I was going to make a card but as the design progressed I decided to make a wall hanging.  This was great fun to make, and I used several different techniques and textures.  The stamps and dies are from Sheena Douglass' Festive Fancies Perfect Partners range.  I used Aqua Tint Inks to colour, gilding wax, Sheena Douglass embossing folders and stencil,black Versafine ink, black embossing powder, heat resistant acetate, metallic gold acrylic paint, Distress Inks Mowed Lawn and Vintage Photo.  I began by sponging the Aqua Tints all over a piece of white card.  When dry I used brown ink through the stencil, then embossed the panel through a machine.  I added gilding wax to the raised pattern and around the edges of the panel, then matted it onto black card with foam pads for extra height and layered it onto cream linen textured card.  Next I took 4 layers of copy paper and die cut the trailing ivy leaves.  I painted them with Aqua Tints and stamped the ivy leaves onto the die cuts.  I then embossed a piece of pearlescent green card in a holly leaf folder.  I cut out a couple of the sprigs, added gilding wax and painted the berries.   Taking a piece of cardboard I tore the top layer off around the edges to give a distressed look.  I then painted it gold.  When dry I  attached the decorated panel to the gold board.  I added the holly and ivy leaves with dimensional glue around the edges of the panel.  I stamped the corner images and a sentiment onto acetate in black ink and heat embossed with black powder, then turned the images over and coloured the leaves with Pro markers.  I then painted over the coloured leaves with white Gesso to make the colours stand out more.  When dry I cut the images out and attached the corners to the gold panel, and the sentiment to the centre of the focal panel.  I then put two holes and eyelets at the top of the gold panel and threaded some Bakers Twine through.   I think this design works well as a home decor project, or scaled down as a card.