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

Joy to the World with Pure Innocence

I haven't made a Christmas card for a while, so it's about time. There are three challenges that go together really well this week. When I saw that Crimbo Crackers Challenge #14 was ANGELS, I knew it was time to use my Pure Innocence angel from Heather Ellis. Winter Wonderland's challenge this week is Here Come the Girls, so it's perfect for girl angels. Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #70 is to use any sentiment without the word "Christmas." So let heaven and nature sing, Joy to the World!

I used the CPS Sketch #263 which provided the extra room my angel needed for her horn and a bird.
I knew some glittery snowflake paper would be great in the middle with white embossed snowflake panels on each side.

I added aqua blue sparkles on each side of the sentiment and bitty clear sparkles on the center of each embossed snow circle. The angel's halo is also glittered with a Sakura glitter gel pen.

Thanks for the inspiritng challenges!! May the message of Christ's birth bring you joy all year long!

Winter Scene for Christmas Challenges with Sketches #21

This stamp set was included in a set of winter stamps that I got a couple of years ago. I hadn't used this one yet, but when I saw the sketch at Christmas Challenges with Sketches and their challenge to make it for winter, I knew I could use this stamp and combine it withWinter Wonderland's challenge to make a winter scene. Since the house looks a lot like our brick home (minus the garage) I thought this would be a good card and message to send either to our daughter in Ohio or son in Kansas to remind them of home. The house with sidewalk is taller than any of my other stamps for a scene. I stamped it on Colonial White and again on White Daisy. I used the Colonial White image as my base, then did paper piecing from the White Daisy to add snow to the bottom. I stamped the snowman and tree on the main image. The tree trunk overlapped the snowman, but that was OK because I stamped him again on White and cut out the snowman body and hat and glued it over the first image. All of the snow in the image and the three snowflakes were highlighted with a Sakura Glitter Gel Pen, but they don't seem to show up in the photo.



5" x 6.5" Christmas Card Recipe:
Paper - My Mind's Eye Lost and Found "Portobello Road;" Basic Grey "Little Black Dress;" Bazzill (teal cardstock); Close To My Heart Chocolate, Colonial White, White Daisy cardstock
Stamps - Close To My Heart "Homeward Bound"
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black
Other - Copic Markers, Martha Stewart snowflake punch; Close To My Heart baker's twine; Sakura glitter gel pen; Cuttlebug (large, snowflake) embossing folder

Christmas Shopping in a Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland has a fabulous challenge to create Christmas cards in a timely fashion throughout the year. I used a sketch from Card Patterns to make this fun card. I'll add more details later today.

6" x 6" Card: Paper Basic Grey; CTMH CS, stamps, button brads

Winter Wonderland Red and White Challenge

I have the goal of continuing to make Christmas cards all year because I've needed so many more than I can keep up with.  The Winter Wonderland is a Christmas Blog challenge. This week the challenge is to use only Red and White except for hair and skin. I used  My Mind's Eye card for the background, CTMH Cranberry and white cardstocks and grosgrain ribbon, and patterned papers from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found "Union Square" (red dots) and Stella and Rose "Gertie." I used an older CTMH stamp set with a girl carrying packages. Her hat once had a very large set of flowers coming off the top, but I easily snipped that off since it was a clear acrylic stamp. I stamped her hat and vest on the red dot paper and cut them out and added. Her hair was stamped red, but I colored it with a brown marker. Her skin was also colored with a light flesh marker that CTMH no longer carries. The sentiment is one of the circles in the CTMH set called Just for the Holidays. It was stamped with Cranberry ink on white like the girl.