This week's challenge at Christmas Card Throwdown is "Sparkle." The inspiration for my card came from this one by Teri Pocock that I had saved on one of my Pinterest boards. I added my sparkle with Christmas Red Stickles glitter glue on Rudolph's nose as well as fake "snow" flakes along the tops of my snowy hills.
I began by punching my reindeer heads with the Stampin' Up "Owl" punch (discontinued). I punched a total of 9, so that I had extras to layer behind each head for increased sturdiness. I inked the edges of each with Walnut Stain Distress ink, including the layering pieces. For the antlers, I used a branch die from Honey Bee Stamps "Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery" set. I die cut it twice from dark brown cardstock, & trimmed off bits to add to my reindeer. I used a 3/8" circle die from Waffle Flower's "Additional Circles" to cut 2 brown noses & 1 red one. I glued the antlers to the backs of the main head pieces, and then glued the layering head pieces on, sandwiching the antlers in between. I don't know if this truly gives the antlers extra strength, but I figure it can't hurt! I glued the noses in place, added a bit of blush to their cheeks with a pink Prismacolor pencil, & used a white gel pen to add freckles to each. Finally, I applied a generous coat of Stickles to Rudolph's nose, & set that aside to dry.
I cut a panel of light blue cardstock to 4x5-1/4" for my background. I used My Favorite Things' "Snow Drifts" dies (discontinued) to cut 2 snow hills for the front. To create the fence, I die cut brown cardstock with 2 of the "Barn Wood Planks" dies from Honey Bee Stamps multiple times. I cut them narrower & shorter, & then glued each to a scrap of kraft cardstock for sturdiness. I trimmed the kraft around each plank, & cut one end of each of the vertical pieces to a point. Then I glued the vertical planks to my background panel, & glued the horizontal piece on top.
I stamped my greeting, from Simon Says Stamp's "Merry and Bright" (discontinued) in Festive Berries Distress Oxide ink onto the bottom of my front snow bank. I heat set that, to keep the ink from smearing, & then glued down my snowy hills. To keep the hills level with the fence, I first glued a scrap of white cardstock to the bottom of my background, extending down from the bottom of the fence pickets, to support the hills. Finally, I added a bead of Glossy Accents to the top of each hill, & pressed clear iridescent flakes of "snow" into that. I set that aside to dry for a few hours.
After the Stickles & Glossy Accents had dried, I assembled my card. I added my deer heads with foam tape along the top of the fence. I glued on googly eyes to each with Ranger Multi Medium Matte. To finish, I added a red cardstock mat to my white A2 card base, & then adhered my panel to that.
I'm also entering my card in the following challenges:
Paper Funday: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)
