Merry Christmas Snowman

The theme for Day 4 of Bugaboo's 2nd Annual "Holiday Chaos" challenge series is a recipe challenge. The recipe calls for one image, two of something, and three of something else. I used their "Winter Snowman" image, 2 patterned papers, and 3 buttons for my card.

I began, as I usually do, by choosing a sketch from Operation Write Home:

I had to make the banner slightly taller to accommodate my greeting. Consequently, there was not enough room for it if I matted it, so I inked around the edges with Black Soot Distress ink instead. Otherwise, I followed the sketch.

I printed my image onto a piece of 140 lb. Strathmore watercolor paper. After taping it to my work surface, I colored it with Inktense pencils and a damp paintbrush, using regular watercolor for the sky. Then I set that aside to air dry, while I worked on the rest of the card.

I chose 2 patterned papers from my holiday scrap stash. I cut them to the sizes indicated in the sketch, and matted them with black paper. I adhered the snowflake pattern on top of the plaid. For my greeting, I chose one from this Hero Arts set. I stamped it onto a piece of white cardstock in Versafine Onyx Black ink, and cut the cardstock into a banner shape.

By this time, the image panel was pretty much dry. I matted it with more black paper, adhered it in place, and glued down the greeting strip over the bottom of it. Finally, I picked 3 red buttons from my stash, and sewed them onto the card front with white embroidery floss. I put little drops of Ranger Multi Medium Matte under the buttons, just to keep them from wiggling around. Then I adhered the completed card front to an A2 card base.

I'm also entering this card in a2z Scrapbooking's December "Watercolor" challenge.