Happy Monday! Thankfully, it's almost over as I type this.
I'm popping in to share yet another Christmas card. At some point, I'll be sharing an art journal spread, but I am not quite finished. I do promise to not be 24/7 Christmas cards...maybe once a week or two I'll have something else, lol. It's what is on my menu right now, what can I say?
I began this card with this challenge sketch. Just remember, the Belles wrote: "As always, you can stretch, shrink, expand, contract, flip or rotate this layout to suit your needs, just make sure we can see "the bones" of the sketch!" I took them literally!!!
Hopefully, dem bones show through, haha. For my triple-circle focus point, I used a stamp from a very old Autumn Leaves set by Sande Kreiger called Christmas Seals. The patterned paper is probably even older, from a 6.5 x 4.5-inch DCWV pad. And the little snowflake dies may be the oldest of all, as it's a QuicKutz Squeeze 2x2 die. The sentiment, from a Papertrey Ink set called Vintage Ornaments, is the youngster, along with the MFT Pinking Edge Rectangle Stax die cut it is stamped on. But then again, that ribbon was my mom's, and who knows how old most of that ribbon is. Me thinks everything on here is technically old!
First thing I did was take Distress inks and heavily ink the edge of the patterned paper with some Faded Jeans, then Chipped Sapphire and then on the very edge I used some of my Ancient Page Charcoal Grey. Next, I started laying out my elements, but I wasn't feeling it. I'd wanted to play off the ric-rac border of the circle stamp, which is why I pulled out the MFT Stax dies, but I wasn't seeing that either.
Anyway, I finally settled on this, after realizing I needed those little snowflakes to balance both the color and elements. I was challenged by this card from the get-go, in terms of design, color matching, and even laying the front layer down crooked on the card base and having to literally rip it off to re-tape it.
I used some more of the Papertrey Ink sentiments from that set on the inside. I cut another piece from the Pinking Edge die to stamp on. Then I stamped snowflakes using a Technique Tuesday border stamp that's so old it's sugaring up and disintegrating, and in fact broke in two places when I tried gingerly lifting it up off its storage sheet to use. LOL, I'll still keep it to use. Yes, I'm way too frugal.
And the back. Not one of my bestest, but again, determined to use the Pinking Edge dies. I am proud of nesting 2 dies perfectly to cut that square! And I was going to put the navy signature piece in the center until I realized the pinking edges matched up. Still think it would have looked better in the center.
So, to finish it off, I got out my white Posca paint pen and drew around the heat-embossed sentiment, as well as on the little snowflakes. But it needed some glitter, so I got out my Wink of Stella Clear and not only went to town but 3 towns and back with the stuff. I have zero control when it comes to Stella - when she winks at me, I'm all hers. haha
This gives you some idea of how glittery it really is. Stella's all over that card (wink wink ha!) I did use some Star Dust Stickles on the little snowflakes. And you can see the gap between the ribbons at top left. Those ribbon pieces are perfectly spaced next to each other, but in the photos it looks like the bottom right edge has a bigger gap between them. And the Wink of Stella on the 3 circles looks grey and dirty. I had to do some editing in PSE with light balancing to get the first photo of it above to show it not dirty-looking. It's so frustrating when it looks better IRL than in the pic. Geez!
Oh well, it's done. I need to right now choose the recipient of this card: someone with bad eyesight who just enjoys getting a card and isn't going to critique it, haha. My brother is an excellent candidate, so done and done! The lesson I learned here is that I should have gone with my first thought to make it what I call a #10 card (long and skinny that fits in a #10 business envelope) because I could have used my circle stamp and followed the sketch pretty much exactly. On the other hand, look at all the fun of the challenge that I would have missed. Yeah, right!
I am playing the following challenges with this card:
1. Jingle Belles Challenge: Sketching in a Winter Wonderland - it's a sketch-etal (skeletal - heehee, get it?) contortion to be sure, but the bones are there. :-)
2. Cardz 4 Galz Challenge #78: Use Dies and/or Punches - I used MFT Pinked Edges Stax Dies and QuicKutz Snowflake Die. Also, a corner punch on the patterned paper, and I used a 2.5" circle punch to punch out my focal circles before fussy-cutting their pinked edges. :-)
3. Christmas at Sweet Stampin August Challenge: Anything Christmas - my second and final entry for this month
4. The Holly and Ivy Challenge #34: Anything Christmas Goes - my first entry to this challenge (max of 3)
5. More Mixed Media August Challenge: Anything Goes + Optional Brights - I have combined paper collage and fabric with ink, paint, embossing powder and glitter glue. And I believe my blues are pretty bright.
9. ABC Christmas August Challenge: P, Q & R Are For? - Q is for Quotes: I've quoted lines from 2 different Christmas songs (Let It Snow and It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year)
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And, a final note for today: Are you sitting down? (For those who know me well, it's a shocker.) I have finally joined a Design Team!
I have joined the team at The Merry Christmas Challenge. It's really a match made in Heaven for me, so who could resist that? I need to make Christmas cards and that's all they do there. I can handle the work load perfectly in terms of product and team support. It's a monthly challenge on the 15th where anything Christmas goes and there is still plenty of time to play in the current challenge, so what is stopping YOU? C'mon it's fun! Get started on those cards!
Thanks for visiting and letting me share my art with you. I hope your week is going well and ends on a high note. I'm hoping to get some time to finish my art journal spread, but anything arty will be enjoyed. xoxoxo
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