Season's Greetings

One of the (even more) interesting challenges for "Hope You Can Cling To" is "Trash Cancer." Take the letters that spell "trash," and come up with words that start with each letter, for elements in your card. I was thoroughly at a loss with what to do, and was going to skip this challenge. One night in the shower, though, I was thinking about this. I came up with the words tulle, ribbon, animal, stitching, and heat embossing. And this card was born!

I stamped the cardinal (animal) & one of the greetings from "Christmas Joy" by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps on a piece of Strathmore smooth bristol paper, in Versafine Onyx Black ink. Then I heat embossed that with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. I colored the cardinal & branch/pine needles with my Zig Clean Color pens, and die cut the panel with a We R Memory Keepers  "Nesting Scallops" die. To add some definition to the edges, I dipped the panel in my Versamark ink pad around the scallops, and then coated it with Stampendous Red Dragon embossing powder. I melted that, added a catchlight to the eye with a white gel pen, and then set the panel aside to work on the rest of the card.

I cut a length of 6" wide gold glitter tulle, and folded it in fourths. I used a needle and thread to sew a running stitch along one long edge, then gathered it along the thread and tied the ends together. For the background, I used a piece of patterned paper from graphic45's "'Twas the Night Before Christmas 8x8" pad (discontinued). I cut it to 4.25x5.5", and machine stitched it to a piece of white cardstock with red thread. I stitched the tulle piece to the background, to hold it in place, and placed 4 layers of foam tape in the center. Then I adhered the focal panel to the foam tape, over the tulle.

I adhered a length of red satin ribbon under the focal panel. I cut another piece of a narrower, organza ribbon, and layered it over the satin, adhering the ends to the back of the panel. I then stitched along both edges of the organza ribbon. Finally, I tied a bow with the organza, and tacked it in place with more hand stitching. All that was left was to attach the card front to a white A2 card base.