Season's Greetings

This week's challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is to use pink, purple, & gold in your card. Kind of an unusual color combination for a Christmas card, but I was up for the challenge! I had these stamped pink poinsettias, from WPlus9's "Poinsettia Builder" set, on my desk since last year, & thought they would be perfect for this challenge. So I die cut them to put them to use.

I had to think for a bit what to do with these poinsettias. I have Art Impressions' "WC Ornate Container Set" stamp set, & found the perfect pot in that for my flowers to live in. I stamped it onto a scrap piece of photo paper that I'd done ink smooshing with Distress Oxides on. I liked the color variation in my technique piece, & had furthered the gold look by spraying the finished piece with Heidi Swapp Gold Color Shine mist. Because of the glossy photo paper, I made sure to stamp the pot with Ranger Jet Black Archival ink. That ink, if heat set, is permanent on glossy surfaces. Because there are no coordinating dies with that stamp set, I fussy cut the pot.

I cut a piece of purple cardstock to 2x4-1/4". I heat embossed snowflakes from Simon Says Stamp's "Holiday Greetings Mix 1" & Mama Elephant's "Holly's Snowflakes" on that with Ranger Gold Super Fine Detail embossing powder. I adhered a panel of white striped paper from The Paper Studio's "Blanc Boutique" 12x12" patterned paper pad, to act as "wallpaper" for my little scene. I added my heat-embossed "tablecloth" to the bottom of my card base. I glued my pot on, then glued the poinsettias over the top edge of the pot.

For the greeting, I used the Season's Greetings from "Holiday Greetings Mix 1." I thought it had the look of a wooden sign, so I decided it would look great "hanging" on the "wall" on my card. I heat embossed it in gold on a light purple cardstock, & cut it out with my scissors, leaving a 1/16" border on all sides. I cut 3 more strips of cardstock to layer behind it, to give my sign some dimension. Because of where I placed the poinsettias on the card, I didn't have enough room to add a string for a hanger for my sign, so I just glued it directly to the card. I imagine it has a sawtooth hanger or a keyhole groove cut in the back, and hangs on an unseen nail. :) I really like how this card came out!

Welcome to the Jungle

I created this card inspired by the photo in the InspirationStation Challenge #35. The whole jungle look of their picture for this challenge made me think of Doodle Pantry's "Safari Animals" digital set (discontinued). I decided to use all the animals in the set, along with its "Welcome to the Jungle" greeting. I'll be sending this card to Send a Smile 4 Kids.

I used Sketch #SC734 from Splitcoaststampers for my design. I created a 5-1/2x2-1/2" blank canvas in Photoshop, as per the sketch, and positioned the animal images on that, overlapping them slightly with each other. I created another 5-1/2x1-3/4" canvas, & positioned the greeting, leaving room for the chevrons in the sketch. I printed the animals onto a scrap of Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper, since I wanted to color them with my Prismacolor pencils. I printed the greeting onto a strip of tan patterned paper from my scrap stash.

After I colored the animals, I fussy cut them out. (I wanted to add a stenciled cloud background, which I felt would be much easier with the animals separate from the background.) I used a black glaze pen to go over the animals' eyes, & added in catchlights with a white gel pen.  For the sky, I used Speckled Egg Distress ink & My Favorite Things' "Mini Cloud Edges" stencil on white cardstock. I die cut 2 grass strips from a patterned paper scrap, with the My Favorite Things "Grassy Fields" dies (discontinued). I adhered the taller strip in place, glued down the animals, & then added the shorter strip in front of them.

I cut the 2 chevrons from patterned papers I found in my scrap stash, & glued them in place on the greeting strip. I adhered my background to a white A2-size card base, added my greeting strip, & that finished this card.

I'm also entering this card in Paper Funday's August 2022 "Anything Goes" Challenge #44.