Monday, December 7, 2015

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"

18 comments:

  1. What a lovely card !
    Thanks for sharing it with us and hope to see you again in our next challenge as well,
    Hugs
    Willeke
    DT Through The Craft Room Door
    Made by Willeke {My personal Blog}

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  2. Love both your creations, The top one if my fav with the beautiful watercolours. Thanks for joining in with the Christmas Chaos on Catch the Bug this week, Hazel (GDT) xx

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  3. Both cards are adorable, Andrea. Thanks for taking the time to share with us at Catch the Bug this week!

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  4. Two fabulous creations Andrea!! Love 'em both, especially the Bugaboo images you used! Thanks for joining our Christmas Chaos challenges at Catch the Bug.

    Linda

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  5. Beautiful cards, it's nice to get Christmas cards done and have a chance to win! Thanks for joining in our Christmas Chaos challenge at Catch The Bug!

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  6. Love how the card turned out with the sketch - very striking. Thanks so much for joining us this time at the Pile it On Challenge, Elizabeth (DT)

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  7. Both of your Christmas Cards are lovely! Thanks so much for joining us at Catch the Bug!
    Judi GDT

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  8. You are so good with colors and papers! I love your watercolors and coloring! :)

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  9. Thanks for joining us for our Christmas Chaos event this week at Bugaboo's Catch the Bug blog.
    Good luck!
    Love
    Jen Leeflang
    BUGABOO DT

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