Sparkly New Year (CYDI?26)

Hey there crafty peeps! Happy New Year! :) Hope you all are doing well, and that you aren't too hungover from last night's festivities! ;) I am here today with my last challenge as an "It Girl" for Can You Digi It? I have loved working for the site and all those fab ladies over there, but I am needing to refocus my energy more on publications and writing. Plus, I will be teaching more theater classes. So, I am sad to say goodbye, but all good things must come to an end. :(

Today's challenge is called "Sparkle, Sparkle, Sparkle!" Here's a little inspiration to get you going, LOVE all this glitz!

I decided to go ahead and make a New Year's card. I normally don't make very many of these (if any at all), but I kept finding and pinning all these New Year's Eve party ideas, like this one and this one. I loved the combination of rustic and glitz that these ideas had, the contrast of the kraft bags and book paper with the glitter and the tinsel. I decided I wanted to try and make a card like that. So, I actually started by making that smaller circular panel on the lower right. I cut some copper cardstock with one of my new TCP dies, and then punched that circle out with the number print from a scrap. I used the Celebrate With Cake digi. I colored it with some metallic pens in copper, silver, and gold. I used a copper colored gel pen to write "2013" on the banner of the cake. I used some White Opal Liquid Pearls and some gems to accent the cake before fussy cutting it out. 

Next, I made the tag, I used two different stamps for the sentiment, I wanted to add the "catch a Dream" sentiment to capture the promise and possibility that a New Year brings. I contrasted the utilitarian tag with some stars die cut from silver and copper card stock. Then I added some gold and silver glittery gems.

Now, at this point, I'm thinking, ok, I could put the circle above the tag, maybe a DP background.... standard A2 card.... UH, NO! That is what I normally would have done, but I am trying to challenge myself to make EVERY aspect of my projects special. Layout is something I struggle with, so with the shapes in mind that I'd already created, I popped on over to the Mojo Monday blog, which is always such a great inspiration for layout. The sketches that Julee and her team come up with are really dynamic. I scrolled through old sketches 'til I found one that would fit the bill... one from February 2011 Mojo 180, that was a "round or square" style. I went with the round one.

While the copper cardstock is relatively metallic, the silver and cream cardstock both have a pearlescent/glittery appearance, but it's hard to see. This is a better shot so you can see that up close:

I cut the card out using my Cricut (Accent Essentials cartridge). I picked that shape with the points because I wanted to mimic the shape of the other round panel that I had already created. I die cut a scalloped circle from silver card stock and I used some jute ribbon. I also used some brocade printed paper from the New Leaf paper pad. I die cut a star border from that foil woodgrain paper scrap. 

The final touches were a clear button, a rhinestone flourish, and some more gold glitter gems.

All along while creating this card, I kept trying to contrast rustic/neutral with glitz and glitter. I think it turned out ok, what do you think? :) I wish you all the best in 2013, friends. Thanks for checking out paper & ICE today.

Cheers! Noelle