Holiday Wishes

Christina Hor is collecting cards for children with congenital heart diseases at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The theme for this card drive is "Winter Wishes" or "Holiday Wishes." You can find out the details & card requirements at her blog. I created this card to send in for that.

I used Operation Write Home's Sketch #124 as the basis for my design. I cut the focal panel slightly larger than the one in the sketch, to 4x4", to accommodate my image & greeting better. I stamped the "Wonderous Kitty" from Stampendous in Hero Arts Charcoal ink onto my kraft panel. I positioned the greeting, from Hero Arts' "Color Layering Christmas Tree" set, so the opening stroke of the "w" lined up with the tip of the holly leaf. I stamped that with Charcoal ink as well. I colored the kitty with my Prismacolor colored pencils, to look like our youngest, Barney. I went over his whiskers with a white pencil, and colored in the pupils with a black glaze pen. I added the catch lights in his eyes & highlights on the berries with a white gel pen. I also added highlights to the left side of the letters in the greeting with a white gel pen, just to help it stand out a bit more.

To assemble my card, I cut 2 pieces of plaid patterned paper from Graphic 45's "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" 8x8" pad. I made one a narrow strip to go above the focal panel, and the other one long enough to fit below. I also increased the width from what the sketch said. I adhered those pieces to a panel of Hot off the Press "Red Holly" patterned paper, and then mounted my focal panel. For the ribbon, I cut a slit on either side of the plaid paper, and fed the ends of a short piece of ribbon through, taping them on the back. I followed the instructions in this video to make a faux bow from more of the same ribbon. I used my paper piercer to help separate the threads in the ribbon I had run across the plaid panel, so I could feed the bow ribbon through. Finally, I scrunched up the flat ribbon around the "knot" in the bow, just so it looked like one piece of ribbon tied in a bow, and secured it in place with glue dots. All I had left to do was adhere my card front to a white A2 card base.

I'm entering this card in Creative Knockouts' Challenge #205: "Furry Friends."