Two Holiday Cards

Catch the Bug Challenge Blog is having their 3rd Annual "Christmas Chaos" challenge series this week. Initially, I had no intention of participating, mostly because I'd totally forgotten about this event. But I can never pass up a challenge, especially when it serves the dual purpose of getting Christmas cards done this time of year! :) (Yes, I'm still working on those.) These are my first two entries.

The first day's challenge theme is "Anything Goes with 'Here Comes Santa Claus'." I used the "Stocking Santa Ornament" image by Bugaboo Stamps. I printed him on a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper, and die cut that with a Spellbinders "Classic Ovals SM" die. I colored Santa & the ornament with my Inktense pencils & a damp brush. After that dried, I coated the ornament ball with Glossy Accents, and the topper with Silver Stickles. I also added some Star Dust Stickles to the star on Santa's hat.

Following Sketch #61 from Operation Write Home, I cut a piece of patterned paper from The Paper Studio's "Christmas Candyland" pad, and matted it with cream cardstock. I also used Versamark ink to stamp a piece of lavender cardstock with Hero Arts "Irregular Arrow Bold Prints" background stamp, and heat embossed it with Recollections Clear Detail embossing powder. I matted that with another piece of cream, and adhered my patterned paper and focal panels in place.

I punched 2 stars from yellow cardstock with a 5/8" star punch by Recollections. I glued them in place, and coated them with Star Dust Stickles. I also went around the perimeter of the oval with Star Dust, and this card was done.

For my second card, I used the sketch provided for the second day of the challenge:

I used one of the images from Bugaboo's "Christmas Doodles." I printed it out on a piece of Strathmore Bristol paper, and colored it with my Zig Clean Color pens. I also traced over the bow and the sparkles in the background with a white gel pen, and colored the ornament topper with a silver gel pen. Since the image is not exactly a perfect circle, I had to fussy cut it. Then I went around the edge with a black brush-tip marker, to conceal the white core. I matted it with yellow, and cut around it with my scissors, leaving about a 1/16" mat. Even though the cutting is not exactly perfect, I figure it goes with the sketchy look of the ornament.

I cut a piece of patterned paper from My Mind's Eye's "Cozy Christmas" 6x6" pad to 2x4", and printed the greeting, from Doodle Pantry's "Holiday Greetings" set, on that. I cut 2 more panels, from one of the papers in BoBunny's "Dear Santa" 6x6" pad, and adhered everything to a light blue panel. Finally, I mounted my card front to a white A2 card base, and coated the ornament with Crystal Stickles.

I'm also entering both cards in Virginia's View Challenge #21: "All About Glitter."

I'm entering my second card as well in the following challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door "Anything Goes"
Pile It On #98: "Anything Christmas/Winter"