Spellbinders / Fun Stamper's Journey Merger

Hi all!  Today I'm helping to celebrate the merger of Spellbinders and Fun Stampers Journey.  I've worked with Spellbinders products for a while now, and it's exciting to see this new line being incorporated.  Here are a few facts about FSJ:

1) FSJ stamps are made in the USA of deeply etched red rubber for a perfect impression every time.

2) FSJ thin metal dies are made of steel to give you clean cuts time and time again, without warping or dulling. And, they’re coated in FSJ green so they're easy to find!

3) FSJ offers over 50 exclusive colors – matching cardstock, ink, ribbon and accessories makes creating easy!

My card today features the new Adore Him set.

I am a bit of a sucker for holiday themed silhouette images, so I was drawn to this set right away.  There are coordinating dies for this set, but I try to keep my Christmas cards (the ones that I mail at least) as flat as possible, so I opted to go with more of a one-layer card.

I started by cutting a panel of watercolor cardstock, placing a strip of Post-It tape across the bottom.

Then I inked up the top portion of the panel using some Distress Oxides: Antique Linen, Salty Ocean, and Black Soot.  This was a bit of a work around because I only really have one set of Distress Oxides, so I started with the Antique Linen at the bottom not a lot, maybe 3/4" - 1" of color, and then added the Salty Ocean to the rest of the panel blending it carefully so as not to overshadow the Antique Linen.  Then I went back in with the Black Soot and basically covered up all of the Salty Ocean heavier at the top of the panel and lighter towards the Antique Linen to get more of a night sky effect.  

Once I was happy with the colors, I sprinkled water over top of the panel to give it some texture and bring out some of the lighter blue.  

I set the panel using a heat gun, and did this for a while since I knew I was going to heat emboss and I didn't want any interference from the Distress Oxide ink.

The Wise Men and Star were then embossed in gold.  At first I thought the Wise Men didn't stand out enough, so I used an ink dauber with a very light amount of Black Soot Distress Oxide around the edges to make it pop a bit more.

The sentiment is also from the Adore Him set, and I wanted a more distressed look - not as sharp as Versafine, so I ended up stamping it with the Black Soot Distress Oxide and then clear embossing.

That's all for me today.  Be sure to head over to Spellbinders to check out the entire Fun Stampers Journey line, there are a lot of cute things in there!