Peeking Snowman Merry Christmas

The current challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is "Snowmen." I got this "Snowman Peeker" digital image from Bugaboo quite some time ago, & figured it would be perfect for this challenge. I used the sketch at Catch the Bug's Stella Says Sketch Challenge #717 for my design.

After figuring out rough dimensions for my card elements, I opened my image in Photoshop. I created a blank "canvas" there, and dragged the snowman onto it. I sized him, and then printed him onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper I'd cut to size.

I used my Mijello Mission Gold & Da Vinci watercolors to paint the image. I extended the black vertical line at the left edge of the image with a black marker, so it was the height of the panel. After the panel had dried, I fussy cut along the left side, around his hat brim, face, & mitten. Then I went over the cut edges with a black brush tip marker, just to give it a more finished appearance.

I chose several patterned papers from my scrap stash. I cut a 1/4" wide strip of the striped paper, and punched along the edge of the candy cane paper with my Fiskars Scallop Sentiment border punch. I also cut six 7/8x7/8" squares from different patterns. I used Vintage Photo Distress ink to go around the edges of the scalloped piece & squares, just so they wouldn't all run together into one big hot mess.

For the background, I used a 4x5.25" panel of green cardstock. I marked where the left edge of my image panel would go, and adhered the striped piece & candy cane strip to the left of that line. I glued my squares in place next. I realized, right after I'd adhered the 2 strips, that I should have glued the squares first, then adhered the scalloped strip over them. But it worked out, since I could just lift up the scallops a bit to snug the squares underneath. After everything was down, I adhered my image with strong double-sided tape, overlapping the strips with the fussy cut portions of the snowman. Finally, I matted the panel with a light blue piece that I'd adhered to a white A2-size card base.

I used one of the stamps from Hero Arts' "Merry Christmas Messages" set for my greeting. I stamped it onto a scrap of white cardstock with Delicata Ruby Red pigment ink. This ink has a slight shimmer to it that makes it good for festive cards. I cut the cardstock into a banner, and adhered it to the front of the card. I kind of debated whether to place the end of the greeting flush with the edge of the card like I did, or against the edge of the green panel. Along the edge of the card just seemed to look better to me, so there it stayed. :)

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

613 Avenue Create Challenge #226: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)
Send a Smile 4 Kids: "Celebration Cards 4 Kids or Anything Goes 4 Kids"