Isa's Alpha Challenge- J

This week has been a bit of a struggle for me, time-wise, so I am very happy to be able to post this card at last! Isa is back from her Summer holiday, and she has put her challenges onto a new blog. You can see the button for it on my sidebar, with the Wednesday Stamper and TMTA buttons. I like Isa's challenges, as the only real rule is that you need to use a word on your entry that begins with the alphabet letter of the week. Then there are a couple more options which you can choose to use, or not. I tend to try all of the options, as I like a real challenge!
This weeks letter is J, with the extra options of using a bright yellow and making a Christmas card. As you can see, I have done all three. I couldn't think of another word other than Joy, but Christmas is not the season to get all funky for me, I love it in all of its traditional glory!
The stamped panel is a yellow metallic watercolour background, stamped with the Hero Arts script in Distress Ink Vintage photo, and the Hero Arts harlequin background in Versamark, then brushed with Perfect Pearls. The other panel is an image transfer of a K and Co Christmas paper, transferred using Matt Medium onto gold Mirri card. Then both the panels were edged with Versamark and gold embossing powder. The letters for the word 'Joy' were changed to gold with my new Sakura Pen Touch pen (the budget alternative to a Krylon pen), then distressed by touching it whilst still wet. I did the same to the stars. The cardstock is Bazzill.
As usual, you can't really see the overall effect in a photo. Doing an image transfer over a bright gold card gives a real depth to the translucent image, rather like the gold backing on costume gems. And many thanks to Julie and Carrie, who have both done photo step-by-steps on their blogs. This time I found it easy, and only made a couple of holes in the image with my fingernails as they are quite long! The tip I really liked was to use a baby wipe to take off the backing paper, I found it much easier than a wet fingertip (and much safer, as no jar of water waiting to be knocked over!)
PS I was really surprised and delighted to find that my Wednesday Stamper entry for last week is on the Sampler. Thanks so much, Wednesday Stamper!