Peace on Earth

In just under the wire with an entry to this week's Dynamic Duos Two-Color Challenge, which is to use gold and black:

Now Caroline, I hear you saying, I see black in that card, but no gold!  You would be right.

This beauty of a stamp arrived in the mail yesterday. 

It was a prize from the recent OnLine Card Classes Holiday Card Workshop. It is a Hero Arts cling stamp. I had not used such a thing before. Gave up on rubber stamps a long time ago because of difficulties lining things up which is much easier with clear acrylic stamps. However, this stamp gives a beautiful impression, and as it is basically all right-angles, no difficulty with getting it straight.

The above card was my first take, based on Kristine Werner's example from the Online class.I stamped in black Memento ink, then sponged on three shades of ink (CTMH Pansy, Crystal Blue and Sweet Leaf) to give the sky a northern lights look. The stitched mat is a die from Lil'Inker, as is the sentiment.

My blogger acquaintance Amy T reminded me this week with her entry that background stamps look great with heat-embossing, so take #2 took shape:

I stamped with Versamark and heat-set gold embossing powder. Again added some shading at the top of the image for a more dark-of-winter look. Great for tomorrow's Winter Solstice, right? Less is definitely more with a wonderful image like this...

I'll also be linking this up to Annette Allen's Linky party.

So final countdown with making, baking, wrapping, caroling all the way...

Happy holidays, friends!

Caroline