Joy to the World

The current challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is a Tic-Tac-Toe Stash challenge. I chose the diagonal line with the Nativity, Patterned paper, & Embossing (heat embossing, in my case) squares.

I had an alcohol ink background that I'd done for a different card, that had not turned out at all as I'd intended. It's been sitting on my desk for a few weeks now, and I finally decided to use it for this card. The blue alcohol inks had gotten rather dark in places, & I was concerned my image wouldn't show up well. So I spritzed the panel with isopropyl alcohol & daubed it with a paper towel to remove some of the ink. To my delight, it worked really well! I then heat embossed one of the images from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "O Holy Night" stamp set with Wow Perissa embossing powder. I had to be very careful with the heat embossing, since my background is Yupo paper, which is rather sensitive to heat. Thankfully, I was able to melt the embossing powder without warping the paper too much. After the embossing had cooled, I die cut it with a circle die. I cut another circle from white cardstock, & adhered my Yupo circle to that, just to provide more stability & flatten it.

I used the "Big Rays" stencil from A Colorful Life Designs to stencil my background. I inked with Fossilized Amber Distress ink onto a light yellow cardstock. When I removed the stencil, I felt the contrast between the inked & uninked areas was a bit too stark, though. So I blended over the whole panel with just the ink that was left on my blending foam. That knocked the contrast back by darkening between the rays slightly. Then I die cut the panel with the stitched rectangle from Mama Elephant's "Femme Frames" set (discontinued).

After I glued my focal circle in place, I stamped my greeting (from the same set) in Lawn Fawn's Blue Jay ink. I cut a panel of patterned paper from Graphic45's "Christmas Carol" 6x6" pad with the largest of the "Large Stitched Rectangle" dies from Lawn Fawn. I used that to mat my main panel, & then adhered it to a white card base.

I'm also entering this card in Double Trouble's "Let's Get A-Round to It" challenge.

Ho Ho Ho!

This week's theme challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is "Christmas Critters." I have had the "Candy Claus" stamp from Stampendous (discontinued) for at least a couple of years, and have never inked it up! I finally decided to pull it out for this challenge.

I cut a panel of Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper to 5-1/2x4-1/4". This image is rather large (about 5x3-1/4"), so I knew I would need the maximum amount of real estate for an A2 card. I stamped the image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I was glad I used my MISTI stamp positioning tool, since I had to stamp it a few times to get a good impression. I then colored it with my Prismacolor colored pencils. After I finished coloring, I used a black fine-tip pen to add a few more dots to the snow area, as the dots in the stamp kind of stopped short at either end. By extending the area of dots, I just feel it gives a smoother look.

The greeting turned out to be the trickiest part of the whole card. I planned to use a die from the "Delightful Day Conversation Bubbles" set by Taylored Expressions (discontinued), with the "Ho Ho Ho!" greeting from the October 2020 My Monthly Hero kit (discontinued). Unfortunately, the only speech bubble die that came close to being the right size was both a bit too long & in the wrong orientation for my design. I had to think about it for a few minutes, but finally tested to see if I could do partial die cutting to shorten the speech bubble. I just cut a scrap of cardstock, & ran it through my die cutting machine, making sure the die hung out of the plates where I didn't want to cut it. Then I slid the die over, and finished the cut. And it worked like a charm! Plus, I could flip the die cut over to get the bubble in the right direction. When I die cut for real (using Simon Says Stamp's Fog cardstock), I placed another scrap of cardstock between the Fog piece & my cutting plate, so the impressions in the plate wouldn't mar the Fog cardstock. After I die cut the final piece, I stamped my greeting with Versafine Onyx Black ink onto the back of the speech bubble. Finally, I adhered my card panel to a white A2 card base, & glued down my greeting bubble. I really love how this card came out! I will send it to Send a Smile 4 Kids, hopefully to bring a smile to a hospitalized child's face.

I'm also entering this card in Send a Smile 4 Kids' "Holiday/Celebration Cards 4 Kids" challenge.

Happy Birthday #2

The son of a friend of my mom's recently turned 2 years old. My mom asked me if I had any birthday cards that were appropriate for a young child. I didn't, so I created this one.

I stamped the bear & party hat, from Lawn Fawn's "Really High Five" set, onto scraps of Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper. I used my Prismacolor colored pencils to color them in. Because the balloon I would die cut wouldn't have an outline, I decided to fussy-cut the images so they would match better. Thankfully, they weren't too hard to cut out! After I cut them out, I "painted" the edges of each with a black brush-tip marker, to camouflage the white core of the paper & give a cleaner appearance.

I die cut the star balloon from Lawn Fawn's "Party Balloons" set & stamped the "2" from Lawn Fawn's "Quinn's 123s" onto that. I heat embossed the (outline) number, then colored it in with a Versamarker pen & applied more embossing powder. I used my heat gun to melt the powder for a custom balloon. I added shading to the balloon with a blue colored pencil, just so it didn't look so flat.

For the background, I added clouds with the My Favorite Things "Rolling Clouds" stencil & Tumbled Glass Distress ink. They are light, but they are there. I matted that with a rainbow striped paper from the "Party Boy" 6x6" patterned paper pad from Photoplay. I glued my balloon in place & tied a bow from crochet twine around the balloon neck. I "sealed" the knot of the bow with a little liquid glue. I glued the bear on the background, & glued the one end of the twine to his paw, so he can "hold" the balloon string. I also glued the party hat on top of his head.

I heat embossed my greeting - also from "Really High Five" - onto a scrap of blue cardstock. I cut it into 2 labels, & added them to my card at angles for a more playful feel.

I'm entering my card in the following challenges:

The Paper Funday Challenge #45: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

Stay Crafty with a Blog Named Hero September Challenge: "Die-lightful"

Double Trouble Challenge #121: "Punch It Out" (had a can of soda during my crafty session)