What to Do with Extra Bling

If you're like me, you have a tendency to, ahem, over-buy items you use a lot. For me, that's bling. Since investing in enough Copic markers to matter, not to mention a full set of Sharpies, custom coloring clear bling is much easier than trying to match colored bling...which fills my embellishment drawers in abundance.

Green is a perfect example. I have about a hundred shades of green rhinestones.  (Okay. I exaggerate. But still....)

So I made this.

My, oh my! That's a lot of bling! But it barely put a dent in my green bling collection.

To make this sparkly wreath, I stamped a circle in very light green ink (Memento new sprout) and put a punched circle of white card stock in the center of it. Then, I added large rhinestones, then medium, and then small.

The frame became more layered than expected, simply because the piece looked rather boring on a white card base, and the green seemed to overwhelm the wreath. The thin, red mat draws attention to the red banner and provides a festive pop.

Now, ordinarily I shy away from using red for a peace sentiment. After all, red conjures images of blood whether we want it to or not.

"No!" you say. "Holly berries! Santa's outfit! Poinsettias! Cranberries! Yadda! Yadda!"

But there's always blood, too, hovering along the edges of our subconscious, where red is concerned. I'm an English major. I know these things. Authors simply cannot make anything red in literature without implying blood. It's a rule, sort of like pears symbolizing what we will euphemistically refer to as "twigs and berries."

Occasionally, however, we just need to tell our subconscious to shut up. This card is one of those times.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,
Susan

Supplies
stamps: Hero Arts circle stamp, Papertrey Winterberry sentiment
ink: Memento new sprout, Hero Arts red royal
paper: Papertrey white, StampinUp real red, some random green
accessories: rhinestones, circle punch, dimensional, square punches