Enhanced Stamped Focal

As you can probably tell from the last several posts, I DO like this StampinUp stamp for my Christmas cards!  You've seen it painted; and you've seen it beaded. Today's shows the addition of a few other little details.  First, the greeting - this one is NOT from the stamp set. It's from a small stamp set from Studio G.  I thought with the little holly embellishment that it went well.

I am still really missing my Big Shot.  I got the original part they sent out to fix it, but when I got it torn apart, I discovered a second part that needed to be replace.  Now I'm waiting for that. (I'm hoping it will be in today's mail.)  Anyway, without my die cutting machine, I used my Resplendent Rectangles dies as templates - drawing around the shapes and cutting them out to create my shaped mats. I wasn't able to use the two inner shapes exactly as they were, or my focal would have had parts missing.  This meant a bit of tracing from the die and then moving it to trace some more, but it worked.

The focal itself was stamped as usual in black and then colored in with my metallic watercolors.  I added red Stickles for the berries, and a bit of nut brown Flower Soft on the bird for added texture.  On a recent paper crafting order, I added 3 jars of Paper Soft paints to try since they were at such a good price.  I used a make-up sponge to add color around the edge of the focal - and it was not nearly as soft as I expected. I'll have to do some more experimenting with it. It was also a bit too pink, so I took a paintbrush and sort-of stippled an orange-red on top to tone it down.  Then, I added a thin border of red Stickles all around.  While it dried, I inked the edges of the mats, before assembling my card.