Holiday Wishes--with Bells on!

The current theme for Merry Monday Christmas Challenge is "Bells." I went through my holiday stamp sets, and found only two with bells! One of them is the "Holiday Style" set by Sunny Studio Stamps, which is a stamp layering set. Because I also want to enter this card in Christmas Card Throwdown's March "Color" challenge, I decided to stamp my bells in shades of lime green. Non-traditional? Maybe. But heck--why not go for it?! :)

I began by stamping my bells onto white cardstock with Memento New Sprout ink for the base layer, Altenew Frayed Leaf for the middle layer, and Hero Arts Lime Green (double stamped) for the last layer. I actually ended up stamping about twice as many bells as I used, just trying to get everything lined up as close to perfect as possible! After I'd gotten 3 good ones, I die cut them with the coordinating die.

The other 2 colors in Christmas Card Throwdown's palette are burgundy & cream. So I decided to do a burgundy background & cream frame. I did a little die cut inlay, adding dimension by popping the frame up. I die cut the frame from cream cardstock, using the two largest of Lawn Fawn's "Large Cross-Stitched Rectangle" dies. I die cut the burgundy with the smaller of those 2 dies. I also die cut a frame from cream-colored craft foam, trimmed a bit off the outer edges so it wouldn't show, and glued that to the back of my cardstock frame. Had I been thinking ahead of of time, I could have applied Stick It to both sides of the craft foam, and used that to adhere the cardstock BEFORE die cutting. But I didn't think of it until after the fact. It still worked out.

After I determined where to place my bells, I stamped my greeting, from Hero Arts "Color Layering Christmas Tree" set, in Versamark ink & heat embossed it with Ranger Super Fine Detail Gold embossing powder. I punched a hole in the top of each bell with a 1/8" hole punch, and threaded some gold embroidery floss through for a hanger. I glued my bells in place, wrapped the floss around the top of the burgundy panel, and adhered it to the back with some ATG tape.

To finish my card, I adhered my frame to a white A2 card base, and popped my burgundy panel in the middle. I added a bit of clear Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen to my bells, and this card is done!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge: "Use More than One Die or Punch"
613 Avenue Create #195: "Anything Goes with Optional Twist (stamping)"