joyful and merry magic

This week I'm playing with the Joyful stamp set from STAMPlorations (Which is on sale. Just sayin'.) Have a look.

It's such fun. Not just cuz of those four larger images, but look at all those words in that old typewriter font. Does that not look like fun waiting to happen.

Must admit, the very first thing I noticed was the "ho!", quickly followed by the "fa la la" above it. (Just keep watching!) But the first image which called to me was the wreath. I love how sketchy, yet dense, it is. I used it for a non-holiday card here. Today I went Christmas. With a twist.

Do you recall "magic slider" cards? Like this beauty which was around blogland awhile ago. Here's my version. That's the wreath stamped in platinum StazOn on acetate with red Sharpie berries that you're looking at in the frame.

And then the magic begins...

Voila!

Silly me. I didn't photograph the CS tag under the acetate, so you just have to imagine it's stamped in Adirondack Bottle green and I sprinkled fine red glitter on droplets of glue to make berries. Had to keep this extra height on the CS tag in mind when constructing the secret compartment, but thicker foam adhesive did the trick. 

I remember being in awe of this technique once I finally got my head around it. Recently I've made two and DD just requested one for her girlfriend. Guess I'm not the only one who likes magic!

I'm playing in these fun challenges:

Inspiration Emporium where the December challenge is titled "Happy Holidays"

Addicted to CAS - where the code word is "tag". Got two actually ;)

Addicted to Stamps and More where this is the lovely photo inspiration

Two more photos to share with you. 25 years ago this is what things were looking like at the Berlin Wall as it started to "come down". 

Image Source

And last night, over 300,000 people celebrated in Berlin. Part of the celebration included releasing 8000 balloons which had been lined up along the site of "the Wall".

Image Source

Happy Unity Day, Germany!