This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! It’s the 25th of the month, which means that today I am sharing inspiration for my Songs of the Season series, where I share a project inspired by the music of the holiday season. Last month, I shared some vivid, majestic snowflake inspiration inspired by the Christmas classic Silent Night (check it out HERE). This month, I was inspired by a song that reminds me so much of my adolescent years. My had mom found a Christmas ornament that played “Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano, and it became sort of a silly refrain at our house, not just during the holiday season, but throughout the year. Any time we needed a little giggle or to lighten the mood, the “Feliz Navidad” refrain would inevitably spring to mind and we would start playfully singing it, sometimes dancing along. My mom went through phases with her Christmas decor, sometimes using elegant, color-coordinated baubles, carefully collecting ornaments throughout the year for our Christmas tree, but during my teenage years, I remember a brightly colored Christmas tree with lots of electic, vibrant ornaments, so that’s what my project embodies today. Let’s get started with the details!
My project started with the “Feliz Navidad” sentiment from the Elegantly Modern Christmas Hot Foil Plate set. I hot foiled the sentiment using Spellbinders’s Rainbow Confetti Glimmer Hot Foil, then die cut the greeting using the coordinating die (the stamps and dies that match this hot foil plate set are currently out of stock, but be sure to sign up for the email notifications for when they come back!). I used the colors in the foil as the color palette for the rest of my project.
Try as they might, the modern Christmas lights just cannot compare to that incandescent glow of the Christmas lights of my youth! In order to recreate that eclectic, colorful Christmas tree that I remember so vividly from my adolescent years, I die cut a bunch of the Christmas Bulbs dies from Hammermill white cardstock. I could have used alcohol markers to add color and make them super detailed, but I decided to keep things simple so that if someone wanted to mass-produce this project, they would have a good idea of which colors to use. I pulled out Rose, Cherry, Dandelion, Fairway, Cadette, and Amethyst inks from Simon Says Stamp, then used small blending brushes to blend them on the Christmas bulb die cuts. Tip: in order to keep your connectors with the appropriately-sized bulb, use a small piece of washi tape to keep them together before adhering them to the solid backer for your light bulb die cuts.
To create the tree branch for my strand of Christmas lights, I die cut several pine boughs from white cardstock using the Pine Needle Trio die set. To quickly and easily adhere them to my white A2 card front, I used the Micro Dot Adhesive Sheets from Simon Says Stamp. These sheets make adhering super delicate, intricate die cuts like these pine boughs a breeze! I simply sandwiched them between the two sheets of release paper, rubbed my bone folder on the back of the sheet with the adhesive on it, and then pulled the die cuts off, adhering them to my card front with ease! I popped up the hot foiled sentiment die cut with some foam squares (another excellent time saver so that you don’t have to worry about cutting up foam tape!), then arranged my string of lights along the “branch,” popping them up with foam squares as well. After I had adhered all of my holiday lights, I used the residual ink left on my blending brushes to add a colorful glow to each of the bulbs. I love the effect!! Finally, I added a few shimmering iridescent gems for some sparkle!!
Well, that’s all for this month’s edition of Songs of the Season. Prepare yourselves, because starting in October, I’m going into full Christmas mode, and I am so excited about it! I have been working with holiday product since last spring, but now I can really let my Christmas-loving flag fly high! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!
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