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

Gingham Birthday Card

Sketch and Stash Challenges require you to tell what is your new/neglected stash that you used on your card. I know honesty is always the best policy. I told my kids to tell the truth even if it hurt. I am truly a paper hoarder. I have paper that is really old. Some of my friends would give away paper they hadn't used. I kept it in case I was asked to teach more stamp camps for kids or Girl Scouts like I have in the past. In my school district I'd have 70 to 90 kids each afternoon from different schools, so I needed lots of supplies. But now that I'm retired, I'm using it to make cards!!

My neglected stash is the gingham and pink cardstock that I know I bought in 2006 in Salt Lake City. Close To My Heart was getting rid of old surplus and sold my friend and I many packages of 24 sheets for $1.00 each package. Unfortunately, she had an emergency and had to fly to New York City so that my hubby and I packed her luggage and paper along with mine and his in my car as we left the convention to go on vacation in Wyoming. My husband said it would never fit, but I learned I was really good at packing a car - tight. I'm sure our gas mileage back to Kansas City, Missouri, wasn't too great with all that weight.

Here's the sketch for this week:

CCEE Stampers asked us to use Gingham in this week's challenge - my very neglected paper. I also had some newer paper I hadn't used yet - Basic Grey's Hello Luscious - the aqua pattern. I made the card with the color palette from CR84FN - pink, aqua, and neutral, I used white and black as neutrals.

The button is really the same shade of aqua as the leafy flourish, but the shadows hide the color. I used white satin ribbon for the horizontal strip in the sketch. I liked the way the black jute bow almost matches the black stamped flourish under the sentiment. Overall, I think mixing old patterns with new can have a nice effect. I hope it helps give you ideas about using up your stash!

Challenges:

CCEE Stampers - CCEE1218 Gingham

CR84FN Color Challenge #53 - pink, aqua, neutral

Sketch N Stash Challenge #87 - sketch and tell what was neglected stash

5" x 5" Birthday Card Recipe:

Paper - Basic Grey "Hello Luscious;" Close To My Heart retired gingham and shell pink cardstock, White Daisy, Juniper, Black cardstock

Stamp - CTMH "4 My Friend"

Inks - CTMH Black, Baby Pink

Other - Cheery Lynne "Tropical Flourish" die; CTMH Juniper button, Black Jute; Cuttlebug embossing folder; White satin ribbon unknown