Look, look!  The photo is slightly out of focus but you can SEE the sparkly blue snowflakes and the white embossed snowflakes that you could not see in this post.

Since I already had the Ornamental Snowflakes and Greetings stamp sets on my table, and I had a card swap due, AND I loved the blue snowflakes on my giftbag, I created this card.  It was sooo hard to photograph and this picture does not begin to show the extra little sparkle and depth.  What looks like a lot of white space actually has white embossed snowflakes (you can kinda see that in the lower left corner where the blue…really sparkly even though it does not look like it sparkles…large snowflake has a muted snowflake arm), as does the center large snowflake.  In real life this card shows 3 different textures of snowflake: the large sparkly embossed blue, the medium matte blue, and the small embossed white.  The holiday greetings message peeking through the oval cutout does show the blue sparkly embossing a little clearer.

Stamps: TAC Ornamental Snowflakes, TAC Greetings (GWP); Inks: Versamark, Palette Prussian Blue; Accessories: Coluzzle Oval Template, Mat, and Knife; X-Static (anti-static bag); White and Sparkle Embossing Powders; Heat Tool; Technique: To create super sparkly COLORED snowflakes I first inked the stamp with Versamark, then pressed it to the blue Palette Prussian Blue pad; and then onto the white card layer.  Next I sprinkled on the Sparkle Embossing Powder and heated it.  (I did the same technique for the Holiday Greetings peeping thru the oval window.)

You can see a close-up of the sparkly and white snowflakes here.

I created three sets of decorated holiday gift bags to participate in Avis Anderson’s swap. Unfortunately the swap didn’t have quite as many participants as in prior years, so I ended up just sending one set:

Stamps: TAC Joy of Christmas; TAC Curls & Swirls; Paper: Glossy White, Scarlet; Ink: Kaleidacolor Fruit Cake; Accessories: White Handled Gift Bag, Brayer, Rhinestone Jewel

But since I had also created a few more, I decided Avis should get one of all three (remember, you need to keep your swap hostesses “sweet”).

Stamps: TAC Holly Swirls, TAC Gift With Purchase Stamp “Greetings”; TAC Holiday Collages; Paper: TAC Amelia patterned paper and cardstock; Inks: Versamark, Palette Claret; Accessories: Brown Lunch Sack; Marvy Uchida Mega Oval Punch; Anti-Static Bag, Sparkle Embossing Powder, Heat Tool, Perfect Pearls (Metallics set); Crop-A-Dile and Antique Copper Hardware; TAC Amelia Ribbon; TAC Amelia Tag  Technique: To create the gold swirls on the patterned paper, stamp images using Versamark and then brush on the Perfect Pearls (I used the copper color); buff with a used dryer sheet (creates a surface seal so the metallic powder does not rub off).  See technique explanation on the snowflake giftbag to see how I created a sparkly red Holiday Greetings message on the tag.

Stamps: TAC Ornamental Snowflakes, TAC Trendy Greetings; Inks: Versamark, Palette Starry Night; Accessories: Blue Lunch Sack; Marvy Uchida Giga Tag Punch; Crop-A-Dile and Pewter Hardware; Ribbon; Anti-Static Bag; Detail White, Clear, and Silver Embossing Powder; Sparkle Embossing Powder; Heat Tool; Technique: To create super sparkly COLORED snowflakes I first inked the stamp with Versamark, then pressed it to the blue Palette Starry Night pad; and then onto the blue lunch bag.  Next I sprinkled on the Sparkle Embossing Powder and heated it.  The smallest snowflakes were just stamped using Versamark and the Sparkle EP, you can’t see them as well as the medium blue snowflake which is super sparkly.

Let me know what you think.  Two of the rules were to use lunch-bag sized bags and if participating with more than one set, the second set had to be different from the first set.  (And so little ol’ over-achiever me…I made three prototypes.)

The stamp sets I chose on the first two gift bags were part of a TAC blog hopping challenge. Click on the following links to see some cards made with the Joy of Christmas and Holly Swirls stamp sets:

Laurie B-W.
Melisa
Tonya
Diane #1 and #2
Laurie U.
Sarah
Carol
Bridgett