Sparkle and Shine for Countryview Challenges

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good week!
Today it is my turn to share a second project on the Countryview Challenge blog, - another Christmas card I'm afraid to say

I used The Vintage Cabinet card die, the Stacked Snowflakes die, and the Holiday Greens Sizzlits die, all by Tim Holtz. Now before I go on I want to tell you about a fabulous new product I just discovered, amazingly useful if you love to use die cuts, specially delicate ones. The stuff is called Stick It and was invented by Ken Oliver. Ken, who has been a Facebook friend for some time, sent me some to try out, and I have to say, I LOVE IT!!. Here is a link to a video where Ken demonstrates how it works:
 For my project I started by cutting 4 of the cabinet cards with the small die inside to create a frame. I cut them from cereal packets, so the frame would be sturdy and have some depth. I glued them together, gave them a coat of gesso and then added Picket Fence Distress crackle paint. When everything had dried I coloured it and  a backing piece with the new Distress Stains. I used Brushed Pewter and Faded Jeans, plus a tiny bit of Picket Fence.

I inked all he edges with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and then gave the centre of the backing a spritz of Black Soot, so there would be a good contrast for the Snowflake I was planning to add.

Sparkle and Shine was added by covering everything in Mat medium and then sprinkling with Clear Rockcandy Distress Glitter.

I stacked the snowflakes up, edged with Walnut Stain again and then also gave them the glitter treatment.

I adhered the frame to a card blank, inked with a mix of Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain DI and then stamped one of the stamps from the Christmas Nostalgia set around the edges, also in Walnut Stain.

I embellished with some branches from the Holiday Greens, coloured with Iced Spruce and more glitter.

I also added a few tiny berries to the branches, they came from my Christmas box....

Well, that's another Christmas card done, so I am happy about that. There is still a week left to play in the challenge if you have not done so yet, do go over and check it out, we would love to see you there!