Jingle Belles - 01

Taking back December one week at a time - sounds very good to me.  I saw this on the Jingle Belles blog and decided to join in the fun and, hopefully, make my way to a more relaxing and enjoyable December of 2011. 

Each Friday they'll be posting a challenge and those that take part will have until Wednesday of the following week to upload their card. 

We're getting a head start with the fun as a challenge has already been posted to start the new year.  We're to .........

"make a holiday card using one of your favorite old products and one of the cool new things you've just been given for christmas and cannot wait to tear into ...OR... recycle one of the holiday cards you received in 2010 by combining it with something new you've been hoarding (yeah, we all do that) ...OR... combine vintage found items with a funky modern style! ...OR... well, go any direction you like, but combine OLD AND NEW in an interesting way on a holiday card!"

On our little mini-vacation trip to Cape May we browsed in a little Scandinavian shop.  I just love the red and white that is so crisp looking.  So I decided to use that color scheme on my first card. 

The old elements that I chose to use were a paper doily from a stack that a retiring teacher had given me from her stash of art supplies she'd accrued over the years, and the stamps that I used are in the vintage style.

My new elements include the silver foil cupcake liner behind the doily, the silver glass glitter which I hadn't opened yet, and a brandy new silver glimmer brad. 

The little girl image was stamped in Real Red ink directly onto the center of the doily and I colored in her hat and coat with an SU marker of the same color.  I used my white gel pen to highlight her buttons and to redraw the sleeve line and the rope that crossed her red coat.  The leaves are from the 2-step bird punch and were leftovers from a previous project.  The background snowflakes are from Northern Hearts and are stamped again in Real Red on Whisper White and then run through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  I used some red satin ribbon and some silver stretch cord with the postage stamp image from the Christmas Punch set. 

The cupcake liner came to me as an idea after I had been browsing some websites yesterday and saw a multitude of items being created with them.  Wreaths, topiaries, flowers... that got me thinking and I thought I remembered picking up some red and white liners, but couldn't find them.  When I saw the foil ones in my cupboard I had my lightbulb moment.  Flattened it was perfect as the backdrop for the doily.  I don't think I've seen this anywhere before, but I could be wrong.

I've decided that it will be interesting to see how these cards hold up until next December with the all these elements and different adhesives.  The hard part will be deciding who gets which card as I usually duplicate one or two cards each year for our mailing list. 

My good friend Joan gave me the perfect box to put these cards in week-to-week.  I'll have to remember to take a picture.

With the exception of the foil liner and the doily all items used on this card are Stampin' Up.  (The silver cord is retired though.)