Merry Christmas

The October Color Challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is to use red & brown on your card. One of my favorite stamp sets is Hero Arts' "Color Layering Cardinal." I decided to pair that with the "Woodgrain" embossing folder from Tim Holtz for a woodland-style card.

To stamp the cardinal, I used all Memento dye inks. I began with Tangelo for the first, most solid, layer, & then stamped over it with Lady Bug, to give me an orangey-red color. I used Rhubarb Stalk for the second layer, followed by London Fog for the third. I stamped the face details with Tuxedo Black. I also stamped the feet with Tangelo + London Fog, and used Lawn Fawn's Walnut ink for the branch.

I cut out the pieces with the coordinating dies, & glued the feet to the bird's body. I decided to frame the focal image with a circle. So I die cut a mid-tone brown cardstock circle, & a second lighter-colored circle to mat it. I glued the bird & branch to the front circle, trimmed off the overhanging parts of the branch, then glued the whole thing to the mat.

I embossed a panel of brown cardstock with the "Woodgrain" folder. I stamped the greeting, from Hero Arts "Color Layering Snowflake," in Walnut ink onto a scrap of the same cardstock I'd used for the circular mat, then cut that into a strip. I inked the edges of the greeting strip with Gathered Twigs Distress ink, to help it stand out & not look so bland. I also added foam tape to the back to give it just a bit of dimension.

To accent the greeting & bring a bit of red down towards that part of the card, I used Lady Bug & Rhubarb Stalk to stamp 3 berry branches from "Color Layering Cardinal." After I die cut them, I adhered the bottoms to the foam tape on the back of the greeting. I added the assemblage to my embossed panel, using liquid glue behind the branches. Finally, I added my panel to a red mat that I'd adhered to a white A2-size card base.

I'm also entering this card in 613 Avenue Create's October Challenge: "Anything Goes."