...sugar coated gingies

Good Friday afternoon to you! My head is somewhat below the parapets yet as I wrestle with stock organization in the wake of the August release.....

On that front, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I hope to have good news soon for folks who are still interested in seed packets and the like!

Today though I cheered myself up by finishing off a card I started the other night. Those Gingerbread guys never fail to make me smile! I made up some cut files for them that you can get for free here, and while I was footering about with those, I ran out this quad of gingies for the front of my card. It's easy to do this on the Cameo, by copying the Gingerbread boy cut file 3 times, arranging them in a square and then, merging them, but if anyone would like the panel, pre-made, just leave a comment here and I'll see what I can do.

I stamped the gingerdudes from Oven Fresh, in Rich Cocoa memento ink and then coloured them with a copic, I wasn't too fussy with shading because I knew I was going to cover them with that crazy glazy crackle stuff...Ranger make it, Crackle glaze I believe it is called. Had to walk away and leave the guys overnight to dry, I have no patience so I very nearly scraped it off again, but I'm glad I didn't, I love that the crackle effect makes it look like clear sugar frosting.

I added a few wee red coloured pebbles for buttons and used a white gel pen, which had to be revived to life with a kettle of boiling water, to pick out the icing. I left my gingerbread mens eyes alone as we traditionally use currants for eyes in our house.

I also have a little TIP for you- when using a gel pen over clear crackle glaze, get out your heat tool. Heat the area you want to draw on with the heat tool, add your gel markings and instantly heat it again. If you don't do this, there is every chance that your gel ink will run down into the cracks in the glaze and seep into the image underneath. Heating the glaze before you draw on it helps the ink to set faster so that as you are laying on the ink, it is practically setting as it hits the surface. Heating the gel ink immediately after drawing just helps it to dry faster and eliminates the possibility of pools of ink seeping away.

The background for this card is a piece of cream card that I 'letterpressed' with a snowflake Impressabilities plate (Spellbinders) - I inked up the plate and ran it through the Grand Calibur in the embossing sandwich. The first press was lovely and strong, but I ran it through again on a sheet of fresh cardstock and got this lovely subtle muted tone background which I preferred for this card!

Hope it tickles!