Peace On Earth Aperture card

Sunday blessings, friends! It was a very cold morning down here on the upper Texas coast where I live. A bona fide Blue Norther blew in. For 18 hours Saturday the winds persisted. Power lines and flags not lowered took some stress. We had a low last night of 36, but now all is quiet and 40 degrees. I know, some of you are laughing at 40 being cold. I feelz you...as I'm shivering!

      

So to take my mind off this cold, I made a Christmas card - with snow, sparkle, glitter and shine. As always these days, I used a sketch, this the current one from Sweet Sketch Wednesday. On the right is the sketch as published. And on the left is how I have rotated it vertically, then horizontally. Its elements are all there on my card, just not the exact shapes as in the sketch. As you may have guessed, I really want to get out of following them so literally. More fun to think outside the box, which I need a lot of practice doing! 

I also must credit being very very inspired by this card by Heidi Weaver. I've almost CASE'd it. I love it and she has such a great eye for design. I'd noticed the card back in December and I think that's what attracted me to this sketch when it came out. I looked at the sketch and in my mind I saw my version of her card. Thank you for the inspiration, Heidi!

Supplies Used:
Making Memories & Bazzill card stocks
Blue and Silver patterned foil gift wrap paper
Silver glitter paper
Spellbinders Labels 6 Nestie - used 2 of the dies
Lawn Fawn Stitched Hillside Borders - used 2 of the dies
Crafters Companion Elegant Reindeer die
Verve Visuals Starry die
Sizzix Tree With Snow Sizzlit
Sizzix Original Green steel-cut Tree die
Stamps: Stamplorations and Papertrey Ink
Inks: Versafine Clair and Memento
Light Brown Copic marker
Clear EP
Stickles: Star Dust, Frosted Lace, Icicle and Silver
Eyelet Outlet winter white enamel dots

All of the card stock I used was cut from 12x12 sheets I've had forever. The card base and bottom royal blue mat is Making Memories smooth. The pearly blue and winter white textured cs is Bazzill. I cut an aperture with the Labels 6 die and put my gift wrap paper in it. Then I cut a smaller Labels 6 and floated it in the aperature like an island. I die cut the stars and the reindeer out of the glitter paper, and cut the trees out of the white card stock leftover from cutting the card base.  

  

I wanted to show you these OLD Sizzix dies I used. One thing about the old stuff, it still works just fine! My Big Shot handles them beautifully. Back in the day when there were new, I had a time trying to get a good cut on some of my more intricate Sizzlits, but the machines and plates have improved to where I get great cuts on those now. 

I used the Stickles on my trees. Just kinda smooshed it here and there. I probably could have left it off now that I see how much that foil gift wrap shines, but oh well. I like my shabby little Stickle trees just fine. I left them uncolored otherwise, except that I colored the trunks a very light brown (you can barely see on the smaller trees). 

After attaching the trees mostly with glue dots, I added the reindeer and the little enamel dots. When I die cut the two pieces for the snowy ground, I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it before assembling and glueing.

  

Here is the inside and the back. I took the extra Labels 6 die cut created when I made my aperture, and used it to frame my inside sentiment. Kept the back pretty plain using the card leftovers.

Challenges Joined:

1. Sweet Sketch Wednesday Jan 9th (did not do the opt. twist)

2. 12 Months of Christmas Link-Up #49: ACG + Opt.Twist- Anything but a Rectangle (I made a 6x6 square card) 

3. CAS Christmas January: Blue & Silver

4. CCAYR January: Let It Snow

5. HLS Christmas January: ACG + Opt. Reindeer (I have an actual reindeer on mine - Ha!)

                                      

6. Jingle Belles JB19:02 - Use What Santa Brought You (Santa brought me enamel dots and the gift wrap paper I used inside my aperture)

7. Sparkles Christmas #96: Add Some Sparkle

8. ABC Christmas: A is for Anything Christmas Goes

9. MLCCB #6: ACG

10. Christmas at Sweet Stampin' January: ACG

11. Country View Challenge January: Landscapes/Cityscapes (mine is a winter landscape)

12. More Mixed Media January: AG + Opt. Blues

13. Moo Mania #182: Cold and Frosty Colors

14. HLS Anything Goes with Dies January: AG with DIES (I used 8 dies on this card)

15. 2 Crafty Critter Crazies #22: AG featuring a Critter (my critter is a reindeer)

16. Card Mania #112: Baby It's Cold Outside
17. CHNCCB #421: ACG + Add a Sentiment (I added Peace on Earth)

That about does it for me tonight. Thanks for dropping by and Stay Artsy this week, friends! xoxo