This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!
Hi friends! I know that I am a couple of days late for this month’s installment of Songs of the Season, but Thanksgiving and all of the family festivities surrounding it made me lose track of the date! This month, I’ve created a project using one of my all-time favorite holiday songs as inspiration: “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” from Meet Me In St. Louis. As someone who grew up 20 minutes outside of St. Louis, this movie has always been dear to my heart. It follows the Smith family right at the turn of the 20th century, when, and I quote, St. Louis was “the center of the entire universe!” for the 1904 World’s Fair. The movie takes place over the course of a full year, but somehow, I feel like it is a Christmas movie. The moment when John Truitt surprises Esther behind the Christmas tree at the ball in his tuxedo and they gracefully waltz out together will never not give me butterflies. Esther’s elegant ruby red velvet dress, large silky hairbows, and touches of sparkle seemed to me to be the height of holiday elegance as a child who loved playing dress up and watching historical movies for the fashion as much as for the story.
You can watch the scene with Judy Garland’s classic version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” above or HERE on YouTube. For my card, I tried to pull in several different textural and thematic elements present in the scene: the luxurious red velvet, the silky coat, the snowflakes, the holiday greenery adorning the house, etc.
Today’s card finally gave me an excuse to use a technique that I’ve had in my head for over a year: shiny red foiled snowflakes on Simon Says Stamp Rich Red Matte Metallic foil cardstock. I used shiny Red Glimmer foil to hot foil the Trinity Frosty Foiled Plates snowflakes onto an A2 panel of Rich Red Matte Metallic foil cardstock. The contrast between the shiny foiled snowflakes and the super smooth, brushed red foil cardstock is just enough to create a subtle texture and pattern on the background panel. I am totally in love with this technique and want to try it on everything!!
Throughout the movie, the young ladies adorn their coiffures with huge bows, as was the style in 1904. To emulate this, I die cut the Giant Gift Bow die from Pawsitively Velvet red cardstock, popping up the top layer with foam adhesive to give extra dimension and create a shadow to allow it to be more visible. I also die cut some foliage from the Berry Stems dies, arranging them behind the bow to create a festive, elegant, and traditional holiday greenery arrangement.
After I had finished arranging the bow and greenery, I heat embossed a greeting from the Graceful Holiday Greetings set onto some heavyweight vellum using white embossing powder. I popped the greeting up with clear foam adhesive, nestling it amongst the holiday foliage. Finally, I added a few sparkling red gems for one last elegant touch of sparkle!
Well, that’s all for my project for this month’s Songs of the Season. I can’t believe that Christmas is less than a month away! The Songs of the Season series won’t be going anywhere, though, because I love Christmas no matter what month it is. 🙂
Just a reminder: you can get this absolutely adorable freebie with any $25 purchase of Tim Holtz brand products. Here’s a little tag that I created using Walter:
Isn’t he just the cutest? This set is only available at Simon Says Stamp while supplies last, so don’t wait! If you’re new to Tim Holtz, I can’t recommend the Distress Inks highly enough. They are water reactive and marvelous for watercoloring, so if you’re a colorist like me, you definitely ought to check them out. The color palette is wide-ranging and so, so beautiful.
Well, that’s all for me today. Thanks so much for stopping by, and be sure to check back later this week as we dive in headfirst for DieCember! It’s going to be an amazing month! Have a marvelous day!
