Jingle All the Way Christmas Card

Life has been so busy the past week I missed my craft room and haven't made many Christmas cards lately. Here's a fun card I made by combining several challenges with this whimsical horse named Charlie dressed up as a reindeer from Clear Dollar Stamps. I was looking for an image using jingle bells for the ABC Christmas Challenge, J - Jingle Bells, when I found this delightful horse.  It's from a set called Charlie Reindeer Games.  I used this sketch #88 from Sketch N Stash. The item from my stash that has been long overlooked is the red shiny ribbon which had always seemed to stiff for making a bow, but was perfect for this design.

I modified the small circle at the bottom and put Santa's pack there instead. It also had jingle bells. I chose the soft blue snowflake paper for the Christmas Card Challenges Week 26 today--to use bling-- so I covered the jingle bell images and the center of the snowflakes with Sakura Gelly Roll glitter gel. It's subltle and shiny. I also chose a shiny red ribbon.  52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge #5 for this month was to use embossing, which I used on the white circle behind Charlie to look like snow.

Here's a close up of the glitter gell on the snowflakes and jingle bells.

The last challenge I used was one I recently found, Holly Jolly Christmas, Anything Goes with Ribbon.

4.25" x 5.5" Christmas Card Recipe:
Paper - My Mind's Eye "12 Days of Christmas;" Close To My Heart White Daisy and Cranberry cardstock
Image - Clear Dollar Stamps digital "Charlie Reindeer Games"
Copic Markers - Grays (N0, N2, N4, N6, N8) Crimson RV29, Pea Green YG63, Mint Green BG13, Yellowish Skin Pink YR61, E00
Accents - Cuttlebug embossing folder "Swiss Dots," red shiny ribbon unknown from my stash, Sakura Gelly Roll glitter gel pen, pop dots

Icy Christmas Ornaments

This week I had read through all of the Christmas challenges to see what I should make and as I created, I eventually realized I had combined five challenges for a change. The Jingle Belles challenged us to emboss so I planned on using both dry and heat embossing. This lovely photo at Winter Wonderland was my inspiration for heat embossing some ornaments in shades of purple and silver.

After I embossed three ornaments and cut them out, I looked for an appropriate sketch. The best sketch was actually the one from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week, although I flipped it vertically.

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge was to use stripes, so I selected a remnant of some My Mind's Eye paper from several years ago that went well with the purple and snow theme. The last challenge was ABC Christmas Challenge - I for Icy. Besides embossing three of the papers with different Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folders, I stamped icy drips with Versamark and embossed with silver powder, cut them out, attached portions in three places the way icicles form, and covered them with glitter gel. My thanks goes out to all of the lovely ladies who inspired my card with their challenge ideas and artwork!

Challenges:
Jingle Belles - Embossing around the Christmas tree
Winter Wonderland - photo inspiration (used pruple colors, ornaments, overlapping, and silver)
52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Sketch 5
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #71 - Stripes
ABC Christmas Challenge - I for Icy

6.5" x 5" Christmas Card Recipe:
Paper - My Mind's Eye; Close To My Heart Petal, Colonial White, Plum Mist, and Smoky Plum cardstocks
Stamps - Close To My Heart  Tannenbaum (sentiment), Holiday Trinkets, Adorn-able (ornaments), (wooden ornament stamp from LSS unknown)
Ink - Versamark,  Pansy Purple
Other - CTMH Pansy Purple and Silver embossing powders, Glitz glitter gel; Cuttlebug Snow Dots embossing folder and two others unknown, silver cord and ribbon from Michaels

ABC Christmas Challenge - E for Evergreen

This challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge was to use traditional Christmas greenery to make our card. I used two stamp sets that highlight Christmas trees. When I was young the song called Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree was popular, so I chose that as the sentiment for this fun card. I used paper piecing by stamping in two colors. The row of trees was embossed and embellished with sparkles.

5" x 6.5" Christmas Card recipe:
Paper - Close To My Heart Mistleto paper pack
Stamps - CTMH Christmas Melodies, Holiday Trinkets (trres)
Ink - Versamark clear ink; CTMH Cranberry, New England Ivy
Other - CTMH Olive embossing powder, Olive organdy ribbon, Clear Sparkles, Red/Pink Sparkles; Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (cranberry scalloped circle); Martha Stewart pine punch; Spellbinder's Nestabilities Label 10; 1 3/4" and 2" circle punches, red heart buttons

Tuesday Morning Sketch #134 Christmas Angel

It's exciting to have motivation to make Christmas cards early. The 52 Christmas Theme Challenge #2 for this year is "Angels." Since I only have one angel stamp I like to revert to digital images taken from vintage art. I love the angel I chose for today. I know my oldest daughter would, too. With the vintage look of the image I chose to distress my papers so the challenge at ABC Christmas Challenge this week, D for Distressing, was just right. I wanted to use some Christmas carol paper, so I chose the Tuesday Morning Sketch #134 for this week with its large corners - just right for some papers from Graphic45 and Close To My Heart. Here's the sketch:

My card is a rectangle rather than a square to accomodate the shape of the angel. I distressed the edges of the corner papers and red cardstock using scissor distressing. The angel graphic and green music papers were ink distressed using Ranger Vintage Photo. My angel came from Free Vintage Angels and cherubs Clip Art at Vintage Holiday Crafts.

ABC Christmas with 52(Christmas) Card Throwdown

We've had a lot of warm weather this winter. This week I've been scrapbooking photos from three Februarys ago when we had a 70 degree day in Kansas City. My three grandsons were playing in short sleeves on the playground. I took a million photos in the two hours I watched them play, so I still had a few I hadn't scrapbooked. It was a marvelous day, but tomorrow we'll have single-digit temperatures in the morning. Just the right time to make a few Christmas cards. ABC Christmas Challenge Blog is on the letter "C" for adding charms. I used the great sketch #2 from 52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown and paper-pieced an ornament for the card.

I love the way this ornament is cut out on the Cricut using the Art Philosophy cartridge. Then you stamp the die cut with the coordinating stamp. I'm entering this card in Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge to use die cuts. The stamp set tells on the clear carrier sheet what size to cut out each image. Of course, I stamped the ornament the second time in Cranberry and cut it out, and glued it in place over the green image. I outlined some of the features on the bird before cutting him out.

5.25" x 5.25" card:
Paper - Close To My Heart - "Mistletoe" paper collection
Stamps - CTMH - A Holiday (sentiment), (ornament -Nov. 2011 constant campaign special)
Ink - CTMH Black, New England Ivy, Cranberry
Other -heart charm and ribbon unknown from my "stash", CTMH Cranberry marker to outline bird features, sponge

ABC Christmas Challenge in Non-traditional Colors

The first challenge this year for the letter "A" at ABC Christmas Challenge blog is "Anything Goes." I love this digital image. It's the same one I used Dec. 10, 2011, from (Free) Vintage Holiday Crafts. I used non-traditional colors for the challenge at the Ribbon Carousel. The papers are retired CTMH.