Noel Angel: A Study in Silver and Gold

Seasons' Greetings, Lost Coasters! Today I have a Christmassy piece of wall or table art for you featuring some of Lost Coast Designs' very coolest (IMO) stamps! (Oh, who am I kidding...I love almost all LCD images so much, it's like trying to choose a favorite kid.) Anyway, I dig the medieval/Victorian Gothic vibe of these stamps so much that I had to combine them, with metallics, for some holiday glitz and festiveness! Here's the piece:

But this "official" scan doesn't capture the depth and sheen of all the metallics very well, so here's a photo of the piece in different light too, so you can see what we're really dealing with here!

Here's how I made it.

First I took some acid-free scrapbook paper that was printed with a sort of linen fabric-looking pattern, then brayered on some thin layers of silver and gold acrylic paint diluted with iridescent medium. This gave a rich-looking shimmer to the background.

Next, I got out this awesome angel from the Fortune Women set, inked it up with black permanent ink, stamped it...

...and then cut out a mask of the figure. I placed the mask over the stamped image using repositionable glue, and got out this fab arch from the ATC Misc. Set 6...and stamped right over the masked image.

Next, I got out some (slightly used) washi tape and masked off the area below the gothic arch where I wanted to stamp this Clover Scroll border, which I love SO BAD:

Here's what those impromptu masks looked like before stamping. 

After adding the scroll border, I pulled out my trusty Rustic Alphabet Set with its strong period feel, composed the word NOEL, and stamped that once in my permanent black ink. Then I overstamped it with embossing ink, offsetting the word just a TEENY bit to provide a hint of shadow, and embossed the word in gold powder.

Now it was time to add silver and gold gel-pen accents to the angel, border, and arch. And the piece was finished...

...Except for putting it in a frame, like so.  😊  Et voila!--a shimmery angel in gold and silver.

Happy holidays to you and your family!