Cozy Christmas Kitty

I decided to enter one more card in the "Sketch" challenge at Our Daily Bread Designs' blog. Once again, I made a Christmas card for my mom to send out this year.

As per the challenge requirement, I based my design on the provided sketch:

I left out the narrow piece under the focal panel, and used 3 snowflake "ornaments" instead of the 4 banners. Otherwise, I stayed with the sketch.

I started by stamping on 2 pieces of white cardstock with the "Gingham Background" stamp. I inked up the stamp for each piece with Festive Berries Distress ink, and spritzed it twice with a fine mist of water, just to get the ink moving a bit more. Then I pressed the cardstock onto the stamp and rubbed across the back of the paper, to get a good transfer of ink. I did this twice, because the stamp was too small for my entire background. I figured it would be easier to line up and piece the stamped images, than to try and line up the rubber stamp the second time with the initial impression. Finally, I lined up the 2 pieces and adhered them to a piece of copy paper to hold them together.

I die cut a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper using the larger of Mama Elephant's "Femme Frames" dies. I stamped the cat (which I believe is by Recollections, though I'm not sure) and a greeting from this Hero Arts set onto that, using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink. I colored the cat with Inktense pencils, blending the colors with my Ranger detail water brush. I also added a bit of gold glitter gel pen for the jingle bell on the cat's hat, and some black & white gel pen on the pupils. I adhered the panel onto a scrap of green cardstock and cut that, leaving an 1/8" border. Finally, I rounded the corners with my 1/4" Corner Chomper.

I found a piece of holiday dot-patterned paper in my too-ample scrap stash, and cut it down for the piece behind the focal panel. I matted it on a piece of the same green cardstock, and adhered it to the gingham panel. I then sewed around the edges of the background with dark green thread, for a bit of homespun texture and some more contrast.

For the "banner" pieces, I die cut 3 snowflakes out of Mixed Media paper using one of the dies from this set. I cut 3 scalloped circles from the green cardstock, using a Lifestyle Crafts' "Nesting Scallops" die. I adhered the snowflakes to the scalloped circles, and glued them down below the patterned paper panel. Finally, I adhered my focal panel to the background, and matted the background with a green polka-dot paper, also from my scraps.

I felt the snowflake pieces needed a little "anchoring," so I poked holes at the top of each; and again at the bottom of the focal panel, right above the first holes. I threaded gold-colored embroidery floss through the holes, to act as hangers. I finished by tying bows at the tops of the snowflake circles, adding a little Ranger Multi Medium in matte to secure the knots.

To finish the card, I scored a piece of 8.5x11" cardstock in half, to make a 5.5x8.5" side-folding card. I blended Festive Berries around the front of that base, so I would have a red mat that matched the gingham background stamping, and adhered the card front panel to it. And that completed this card. A lot of work, but I think well worth it, don't you?

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Stamp It"
a2z Scrapbooking's "Autumn & Christmas"