Nativity Border in Red and Blue

I love the Nativity Border Die from Taylored Expressions.  It's absolutely lovely and so perfect for cards that I make for church.  Then I recently stumbled on the Tiny Star background by Hero Arts (see comments in supply list) and thought the two would coordinate perfectly.

My first mental image was rustic yet elegant, so I went for a kraft and rich red color scheme.


I added a white die-cut behind the kraft to set it off with the appearance of moon glow.  (It's not just a blurry photo!)
I love the red and it's absolutely my favorite of the two, but I also had the fairly obvious thought that I should try a true night sky.  So I pulled out navy and white for a more contemporary look to the scene.

Amazingly different looks, aren't they?
I did the stars on the blue card using Silver Pearl Ex powder which I haven't used in years.  I stamped the background with Versamark and then used a soft brush to cover it with the powder.  Finally, I used a stiff brush to remove the extra powder.  I like it for this card because it stays flat to the paper which then doesn't distract from the die cut.
You know how they say that troubles come in threes.  It's been a tough crafting week for me, full of expensive disasters.

1. Our wi-fi router failed - this seems to happen at least once a year, maybe even more.  For most, this wouldn't be a crafting failure - but my computer is too far from my craft desk to be useful.  I download all challenges into a Google Doc, then while I'm crafting I use my iPad to look them up.  I also have images of many of my stamp sets and dies downloaded in Flickr, so I can easily browse my stamps and dies to see what I want.  My iPad does have 3G but it's an old and tired iPad and just doesn't want to work hard enough in my country home to find 3G.  I got a lot of exercise this week up and down, back and forth to the computer.
2. On a slightly more disastrous note - my Big Shot died.  I started crafting one morning and it was making a grinding noise.  By that afternoon, it just quite turning.  I gave it to my men/boys hoping they could tinker with it but they are a singularly inept group so I'm not holding out hope.  I do have an older Cuttlebug, but Cuttlebugs tend to loosen up over time and getting detailed die cuts like above involves multiple passes on different sides of the cutting pad, multiple shims, and ultimately some careful work with a craft knife.
3. The total disaster was that I dropped my Nikon D5000 camera.  I managed to drop it on the six square feet of tile we have by the door in the family room.  I thought I'd broken the "motor" focus mechanism in the lens.  Lenses are replaceable (although the "motorized" types are quite expensive.) But I popped on my telephoto and it doesn't work well either.  And I tried to manually focus, but then it didn't manage color well.  So something is disastrously, and probably expensively, wrong.

What a week!  And go figure, it's all in December, when my money is budgeted for others.

The pictures above are with a 15-year old compact camera and I am surprisingly OK with them.  In fact, I didn't think they look bad at all until I compared them with earlier shots from my good camera (I had originally made the blue one with a different star and had photos of it.)  The pictures are above are decently clear, but they lack depth.  Nor can I manage a decent close-up shot.  I wanted to show you that the star on the red card is covered with glitter, but I can't get the shot with this camera.  The good camera goes to the shop on Monday - fingers crossed!!

SUPPLY LIST
FYI: The silver cord and the metallic papers are retired from Stampin' Up.  The star background is Hero Arts Tiny Star Background which I do not believe is in their current catalog, but I have linked where I found it.

TE Nativity Border Die	MB Star of Wonder Die	Verve Blessed Christmas	HA Tiny Star Background
SU Crumb Cake CS	SU Crumb Cake Ink	SU Cherry Cobbler CS	SU Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine
Versamark	Hero Arts White Embossing Powder	SU Heat & Stick Powder	Martha Stewart Crystal Fine Glitter
Jacquard Pearl Ex Powdered Pigments Silver	SSS Soft Navy CS	SSS Soft Navy Ink

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