A Special Season

Today is the final day in Catch the Bug challenge blog's "Christmas in July" series of challenges. For this challenge, they listed several combinations of elements, and participants were to choose one combination and make a card incorporating those elements. I chose the combination of ribbon, image, & stitching.

I based my design somewhat loosely on Operation Write Home's Sketch #143:

I made my card a landscape (horizontal) format, added one strip, and put my focal panel over the strips.

To begin, I opened the "Snowflake Reindeer Silhouette" image from Bugaboo Stamps in Photoshop. After sizing the image, I wanted to recolor it. So I created a new layer above the reindeer layer, filled it with a dark red color, and clipped it to the reindeer layer. I adjusted the opacity of the color layer to 60%, so the details on the reindeer would show through. I added a greeting from Doodle Pantry's "Holiday Greetings" set, colored it the same way, and finally printed all that out on a piece of white cardstock.

I chose 3 Christmas-themed ribbons from my stash (source: Michael's), and glued them to a piece of brown cardstock, trimming off the ends flush with the edges of the cardstock. I tacked down my focal panel on top, using a little ATG adhesive in the middle, then sewed it to the base with my sewing machine. Finally, I adhered the completed card front to a white A2 card base. I will be sending this card to Operation Write Home this month, as part of my final shipment.