A Wonderful Holiday Season

The November sketch challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown inspired the design for this card. The background is actually a technique piece that I did last summer, I believe for Dare to Get Dirty at Splitcoaststampers. I also used the "Mistletoe & Holly" stamp set & coordinating dies from the Essentials by Ellen line (discontinued), and one of the "Stitched Tags" by Pretty Pink Posh.

I first stamped the poinsettia in Simon Says Stamp Fog ink onto a scrap of Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper. I used my Prismacolor pencils to color it. Then I put the paper back in my MISTI stamp positioning tool, which I'd used to stamp initially, and stamped over the image with Versamark ink. I heat embossed with Ranger's Liquid Platinum embossing powder. That way, I got the heat embossed lines without them messing with my coloring.

To stamp the pine branches, I placed the stamp in my MISTI, and this time used smooth bristol paper. I began by coloring the stem portion of the stamp with a brown Tombow marker. I gave it a light mist of water, then stamped it onto my paper. I dried the stamp, and colored over the needles with a dark green marker. Then I misted that and stamped. I repeated this process a few times to get the depth of color I wanted. Then I did it all again for the second branch. Finally, I die cut the images with their coordinating dies.

I stamped my greeting onto a scrap of burgundy cardstock, and heat embossed with Ranger White Super Fine Detail embossing powder. I die cut that with a "Stitched Tags" die. I cut a 1" wide strip of patterned paper (from my scrap stash), and adhered it to my background. I arranged my images & tag over that on the left side, and glued them down. I added 3 red sequins for a bit of festive shine. I matted the panel with navy cardstock, & adhered that to a white A2-size card base.