Holiday Card Trio

Since I'm in full-holiday-card-making mode, that's probably all you're going to see for the next couple of weeks. Hope you don't mind!

My first card combines 4 different images from two companies. I began by choosing the snow globe base, globe, & topper from Doodle Pantry's "Snow Globe Gala" collection. The inside image is "The Mousie's Gingerbread Housie" from Dearie Dolls Digi Images. (This is a great source of delightful images, all of which are available for free download for personal use!) I used Sketch #79 from Operation Write Home as the basis of my design:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees counterclockwise, but otherwise made no alterations.

After arranging the digital elements in Photoshop, I printed them on a piece of Strathmore Mixed Media Paper. Because of the detail in the gingerbread house and mice, I used colored pencils to color them in. I did a little blending, but mostly just straight coloring. I also colored the base & topper of the snow globe with pencils, using Gamsol to blend the colors. Finally, I rounded the corners with my 1/4" Corner Chomper.

I cut 3 strips of patterned paper from my scrap stash, and glued them to a piece of brown cardstock, cut to 4.25x5.5". I glued on my focal panel, and then adhered the whole panel to an A2 card base.

My next card uses one of the images from Hero Arts' "Feathered Friends" digital set. I paired it with a greeting stamp (source unknown), which seemed to complement the playful feel of the image.

I used OWH's Sketch #232 for this card:

Since the ribbon I used for the small pieces on the right of the focal panel was rather narrow, I ended up using 5 pieces instead of the 3 indicated in the sketch.

I printed my image on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, and colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush. The images in this set are very delightful to color, since there is not a lot of fine detail, making it easier to get some nice shading. I'd highly recommend checking them out!

After marking the position of my focal panel on the mat, I stamped the greeting in Versamark, and heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail White embossing powder. I glued the image to the mat, and adhered the 2 patterned papers together. I marked the position of the focal panel on this background, and glued the ribbon pieces in place, using pins stuck through them into a piece of cork board underneath my card front to hold them until the glue dried.

While that dried, I took a white A2 card base, and blended Aged Mahogany Distress ink around the front edges, to create my mat. I felt the color was too cool, though, so I went back over it with Fired Brick Distress ink, which gave me the perfect tone. Finally, I glued my card front to the base.

The inspiration for my final card came from one in this blog post, that I'd found through Pinterest. I liked the idea of the embossed panels, with the opposite corners rounded.

I first cut my green panels, and rounded the corners with my 1/2" Corner Chomper. Then I embossed them with the "A2 Holly" folder from The Paper Studio. I adhered those to red cardstock, which I'd cut slightly larger than the panels. Finally, I adhered them to a piece of ivory cardstock cut to 4.25x5.5".

I stamped the holly leaves from this set by Clearly Besotted, using Hero Arts' Forever Green mid-tone shadow ink. I also stamped the coordinating berries from the same set, in Antique Linen Distress ink. I wanted a light ink, but enough so I could see where I'd stamped. After punching this out with a 1" square punch by EK Success, I added Christmas Red Stickles over the stamped berries.

Unfortunately, I had not thought ahead to leave myself room for a greeting. So I stamped one (source unknown) in Versamark on a piece of vellum, and white heat embossed it. I cut that into a strip, and glued it in place with little dots of glue behind the embossing, and folded and glued the ends behind the card front. I finished the card by adhering the front to an A2 card base.

I'm entering these cards in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Monday "Holiday Cards"
Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday "Christmas/Holidays"
a2z Scrapbooking's December Challenge: "Watercolor" (bird card only)