Better late than never!

I had had the bits and pieces for this festive picture lying on my desk for the two weeks leading up to Christmas - but had no inspiration as to how I wanted to put them together. The lightbulb moment came on New Year's Eve and it only took a couple of hours to make once I knew what I was doing!

The Ikea box frame was already black, so I didn't need to paint it. I used two background papers from Craft Creations in grey/white, and stuck to two squares of mountboard (and what a pain to cut that was.....!). The snowflake was stamped and embossed in white onto black gloss card, then cut out. I stamped a sentiment and flourish in Versafine smokey grey, then added a bling flourish over the top. The central square has a border of black nailheads and the outer border is done with silver ones.

For the frame itself, I knew I wanted to use the silver/black mosaic tiles, but didn't want to put them all the way around - so I have just used them in the corners and connected them with more black nailheads. The tiles haven't photographed particularly well, though, they are truly gorgeous in real life! The good thing about the Ikea frame is that it stands completely flat, so I didn't have to hang it - instead I just have it standing on a shelf and it won't topple.

A close up of the flourish:



So, another Christmas picture..... I have put it up even though it is now after Christmas, so I can enjoy it until 12th Night LOL.

I photographed this using one of my Christmas presents - a photo studio booth thingie (can't remember the exact name now). Basically it has lights either side of nylon panels which diffuse the light shining on the object to be photographed. I think I need more practice at it, but the ones I have taken so far aren't too bad.