A Pair of Christmas Cards

I am frantically trying to create our Christmas cards for this year--preferably to be ready to send before Christmas! I created these two towards that goal.

For my first card, I used the line image and greeting from this set from Doodle Pantry. I first die cut the main panel from watercolor paper with the largest die from My Favorite Things "Blueprints 15" set. This creates a panel slightly smaller than an A2 card, with a nice faux-stitched edge. After sizing & positioning the image & greeting in Photoshop, I printed them onto the watercolor panel.

I masked the image off with masking fluid, and did a gradated watercolor wash for the sky. When the watercolor had dried, I removed the masking fluid, and colored the image with my Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. Then I set that aside to dry thoroughly.

For stars, I used Simon Says Stamp's "Falling Stars" stencil and Golden Light Molding Paste. I positioned the stencil over the panel, and carefully applied the paste, being sure not to cover any of the image or words in the greeting. Then I set the panel aside again to let the paste dry.

I die cut a piece of navy cardstock with the A2 size die from Avery Elle's "Custom Panels" set. I adhered the focal panel to that, and finally mounted it on an A2 card base.

My second card features another Doodle Pantry digital image set, "Blessed Christmas." I die cut a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media paper using the smaller of Mama Elephant's "Femme Frames" dies. I printed the Bible verse and image from the set onto that. I taped it down to my cutting board that I use for watercoloring, masking off around the faux-stitched edge. I colored the Baby Jesus with Inktense pencils. I was kind of nervous about this, because I'm not used to doing skin tones with those, especially darker skin tones. I experimented on a scrap of watercolor paper before coloring my image, and I think it ended up looking pretty good. I finished the panel by going over the background with a wash of different yellow watercolors.

For the blue mat, I die cut a piece of cardstock with the scalloped frame die from the "Femme Frames" set. I also die cut a piece of gold cardstock from American Crafts with the A2 die in the "Custom Panels" set. I adhered all three panels together, and mounted the completed card front onto a white A2 card base.

I'm entering both cards in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Anything Goes"
Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Holiday Cards"