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.