Merry Christmas!!! (And a challenge as well.)

Hello, good morning, and above all,

 Merry Christmas!!!

  
There is much sadness of late (Newtown, CT being at the forefront), and my heart goes out to the victims, who are in my thoughts and prayers daily; however, there is still something about which to be joyful, and that is we are celebrating the birth of Christ, which is the whole reason for this season.   Joy to the World, the Lord is come!

This week over at Tuesday Alchemy we have Challenge #46 - Anything Goes.  That's right, ANYTHING.  There are some fabulous prizes and much inspiration, so get thee over there and play along!  The prizes are:

$10 store voucher



and

3 digital images




Today's card was made with  Christmas Candles 3 from Stitchy Bear.  It's a great line stamp, perfect for coloring.

 

I used Copics with which to color the image, then die cut it into a circle and layered it onto a slightly larger circle.  The papers I used are mostly from SU with the addition of musical paper from The Paper Studio Old World Winter stack.  I LOVE that paper.  All papers were inked on the edges with Vintage Photo distress ink, and the music paper was distressed around the edges.

I added gold glitter glue to the candle flames and red glitter glue to the holly berries.  I have very few Copics at this time and have to make do with them, hence the slightly startling visual surprise of purple ribbon on a Christmas card, but I have a feeling Santa is going to rectify that little problem.  Future images will be colored with more depth and better color selection.  By hook or by crook.

I painted the poinsettias with Creative Inspirations paints, first with Rustic Red for the veins and then with Ivory over that.  These are die cut using the SB Layered Poinsettias die.  Yellow Flower Soft completes the flower.

The greeting is computer generated and printed on vellum as I didn't want a bright white strip to detract from the centerpiece.  Red stickles decorate either side to hide the glue dots underneath.  That's the thing with vellum - adhering it without adhesive "show through" can be a little tricky, but I'm always looking for an excuse to add more sparkle, so...win/win.  I've also added a bit of sparkly burlap ribbon under the flower and centerpiece.  I discovered it hidden in a closet the other day and I think it adds the perfect touch of a little rough, yet glittery, see-through texture.  A couple of vintage buttons finish the look.

So that is my card for this week's challenge.  I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward to seeing YOUR creation(s) at Tuesday Alchemy this week!

Happy crafting!!

Supplies:

Stamp:   Christmas Candles 3 from Stitchy Bear Digital Stamps
Ink: printer, TH Distress Ink Vintage Photo
Paper: SU Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Regals dsp stack, The Paper Studio Old World Winter, vellum
Accessories: SB Layered Poinsettia die, Dienamics Circles Stax 1 and 2, glitter glue, CI paints, Flower Soft, burlap ribbon, buttons, Copics

Challenges Entered:

There She Goes #187 - Last Minute Christmas 
Tammy's Scrappin' Corner #42 - Come Play Bingo (blue, image, flowers)
Anything Goes #82 - Traditional Colors
Simon Says...Merry Christmas (anything Christmassy)
Delightful Challenges - Anything Goes
Divas By Design #66 - Anything Goes 
Really Reasonable Ribbon #62 - Anything Goes plus ribbon (mine is the burlap ribbon)
3 Girl Jam Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Frosted Designs - 3rd Day of Christmas (3 mists/ink/paints - Copics, CI paints, distress ink around edges )
CI Paints - Inspired by Merry Christmas
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes
Digi Darla's #43 - Peace On Earth w/ribbon
The Pink Elephant #180 - Anything Goes

Back to crafting!

Hello and good morning!

The Great Fall Garden Cleanup is finally over and I can get back to normal and back to crafting, especially playing in paper and glitter!  Yippee!  And no more worrying about the garden for at least 3 more months, though that doesn't include starting hundreds of annuals from seed in January.  That doesn't take days, though, so it doesn't count.

Today's card isn't a card at all, it's a gift tag.  There are challenges out in blogland which frequently feature tags as their theme - either gift tags themselves or tags on cards.  I've never really made a gift tag per se, and time was limited yesterday, so I decided to make a tag rather than a card since it was so late in the day, figuring I could knock a tag out in less than an hour.  NOT.  But it was still quicker than my typical cards, and very fun.  AND...if I choose to make any more like it, I'll know what I'm doing and they WILL go more quickly.  That being said, here 'tis.

It's a simple tag, really, but it still has layers and bling.  I made it out of two layers of cereal box die cut with a tag die, glued together, then painted with Ivory Creative Inspirations paints.  I discovered after the paint dried that dye ink doesn't really stick to it all that well.  The words kept smearing, so I used it to ink up the edges a little bit and then I watered some refill down and spattered it with a toothbrush.  The watered down ink dried and stayed.  Strange, right? 

I wound up heat embossing the words with my own mixture of brown and metallic gold embossing powders mixed with a little SU Iridescent Ice from a previous project.  You can see the glimmer a little bit in the picture, but it glimmers more IRL.  The little charm is of my own making, which I attached to the seam binding ribbon which I dyed with Evergreen CI paint.  The tiny little jingle bells even tinkle a little bit!

I made the flower with the two smallest SB Layered Poinsettia dies, painted them with Rustic Red CI paints and applied a bit of gold glitter to the petals once assembled.  I took a bit of botanical license with the leaves and used one of the SB Foliage dies, plus the MS pine branch punch.  I painted the larger leaves with CI Evergreen paints.  I do love the subtle shimmer that CI paints give.  The milliner's stamens are from my stash.

And lest you think I left the cereal box tag plain on the back side...

I did not.  As a good friend of mine often says, a lady must look as good leaving as she does coming.  So the back side was finished with dp, also cut with the tag die.

Thank you so much for visiting me today, and I hope you enjoyed today's project.  Until tomorrow, happy crafting!

Ingredients used:

Stamp: MFT Seasonal Sentiments
Ink: SU Soft Suede, Versamark
Paper: Cereal box, SU Garden Green, red from stash, KaiserCraft December 25th
Accessories: SB Foliage and Layered Poinsettia dies, Sissix Scalloped Tags 2 die, MS pine branch punch, custom charm, gold glitter, CI Paints (Ivory, Rustic Red, Evergreen), milliner's stamens, seam binding.

Challenges Entered:

Paper Playtime #89 - Anything Goes
The Pink Elephant TPE176 - Pretty Packaging (the tag is going ON a package to make it pretty - that counts, right?)
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 197 - Gold or Silver
Tuesday Throwdown #125 - Lots of Layers
Anything Goes Challenge 81 - Tags
Creative Card Crew Challenge 24 - Anything Goes
Simon Says ...Anything Goes 
Divas By Design Challenge 63 - Glitter and Sparkle
Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge #47 - Anything Goes
Drunken Stampers Challenge #107 - Not Too Shabby
Allsorts Week 182 - Bring On the Bling 
My Sheri Crafts Challenge #99 - 'Tis the Season
CI Paints Inspired By...Anything Goes