We Three Kings

Hi to you all.  I am here with a card made with two challenges in mind.  The first is the Rudolph Days Challenge run by Mo over at Scraps of Life by Scrappymo, which runs from the 25th to the end of every month and the theme is alway Anything Goes.  The second is NBUS Challenge No. 9 (NBUS means Never Before Used Schtuff) run by Darnell of djkardkreations.  She is running three back to back challenges to celebrate her 5th Blogaversary, having written 1000 posts and reaching over 1000 followers which is a great achievement.  This is the second and the optional theme this time is Steganography which in essence means concealed/hidden words.  If this doesn't make a lot of sense perhaps all will become clear after seeing the card I made, or perhaps not...lol.

I decided to use this new set of stamps by Habico which I was lucky enough to win over at the playground not long ago.  The three kings is the largest stamp in the set and a lovely one to colour.  Anyway, here is what I used for the card:

Habico Stamp Set.
Stamping/Gelli Plate Card 7"x 7".
Wooden Stamp with a Star (unfortunately don't know the make and old so no longer available).
Gelli Plate 6" x 6".
Adirondack Inks:  Butterscotch, Sunshine Yellow. Espresso and Stonewashed.
Tonic Scalloped Square Layering Dies.
XCut Sentiment.
MISTI Stamping Tool.
Spectrum Noir Coloured Pencils.
Gold Mica Powder.
White Funky Foam.
White Base Card 8" x 8" cut down just under 6" x 6".

I started with a piece of the gelli card and using the inks I created the background by placing blue at the top and yellow, butterscotch and a little espresso ink towards the bottom.  I spritzed with water and pressed the card onto the surface of the plate and pulled the print.  I did add extra of some of the colours still using the gelli plate and spritzing to build up the colour a bit on the sand area.

When dry I cut it with one of the scalloped dies (second largest) and then stamped the Wise Men into position using the MISTI but first making sure I had allowed enough room for the sentiment to be placed at the bottom.  I stamped using the Espresso ink and it took several goes to get a really good impression, but the beauty of the MISTI is that you can overstamp as many times as you wish.

I coloured it using my pencils and I also finished with some Gold Mica mixed with a waterbrush and carefully painted on to various parts of the scene.  I also used it for stamping the star by actually painting it on the the rubber stamp.  I did have to go over the star after stamping to darken the impression, but I think the result is nice and shimmery.  I also added a little shading under the feet of the camels using some Espresso ink with the waterbrush.  It doesn't show up that much now as that is where the sentiment is.

The hardest part of the whole process was doing this hidden sentiment.  I started by die cutting the sentiment from the scene first being careful to save all the little pieces (13 in total).  I then cut another using some white funky foam which I backed with Stick It adhesive.  The next step was to mount the scene on to the base card having first fixed a piece of the Stick It adhesive to the back of the the piece before adhering to the card.  I did this as none of the small pieces had any sticky on them I then stuck the funky foam sentiment into the space (excluding all the little pieces apart from the dot for the 'i' which I placed in the hole.  *I then fixed all the little coloured pieces I had kept into the spaces being careful to position them correctly by looking at the top layer to see that they matched correctly.  I then adhered the top layer with some photo glue. 

*With hindsight I think it would have been better to fix the top layer and then inset all the little pieces last as it would have been easier to match them up but I got there in the end and was pleased with the result.  The foam made it stand out better and by setting the little pieces at a lower level gave it more dimension and again made the letters easier to decipher.

I hope you managed to stay awake throughout that rather long winded explanation..lol.  Thank you for taking a look today and I'll see you again soon.

I am also entering the following challenges:

Happy Little Stampers January Christmas Challenge - Anything Goes (no twist).
Artistic Stamper Challenge - Anything Goes.
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes.