Doubling Up - Jingle Belles and Merry Monday

Perhaps that title is a little misleading, I'm doubling up the number of Christmas cards I'm making this time, but not combining challenges.  

The first card is for the Jingle Belles challenge to use 3 or more patterned papers on your card.  I am a slacker when it comes to using patterned paper and there's no excuse for it because I have a separate box full of Christmas-themed paper that I keep right at my feet under my work table.  See, this is why I need challenges like this so I can delve into the box and see what comes of it.  Although I did have to get HWNSNBP involved this time because I couldn't pick up the box myself.  That's always a dangerous thing..... inviting him into the stamp cave.  Even more dangerous letting him look underneath the table.  Yikes!  I was  a bit sneaky though and pulled the box out from under the table with my foot, put a big post-it on it with a big X and left him a note on the kitchen counter to please put it on my chair when he got home from work while I was at physical therapy.  

There was a technique challenge recently on Splitcoast called Punch Strips, so I tried it out with these patterned papers and a punch that resembled an ornament.  I found some glittered star buttons that fit perfectly on the top of the "ornaments" and punched a couple other stars in gold foil and gold glitter paper for the top.  I took some red rick-rack and wrapped thin gold thread around it first, made a loopy mess out of the thread and added the stars over the top of it.  

The second card was done for the Merry Monday challenge - to use neon colors on your Christmas card.  I had seen this stamp set used with watercolored backgrounds and some alcohol ink backgrounds but this one is done with daubers.  

I embossed the images from SU's The Newborn King in white EP and then swirled on the colors with my daubers.  Then I did some detail work with my SU markers on the manger scene and star.  This is definitely one of those cards that looks much better IRL.  For whatever reason, it was very difficult to take a clear picture of it, or maybe it was just my eyes last night, but I'm pretty pleased with the way this turned out.  I'd love to hear what you think.

I'm off to visit the Jingle Belles and Merry Monday to see the other wonderful creations. Take a peak!

Jingle Belles - SKETCH-ing Around the Christmas Tree

When I saw this sketch two weeks ago (yes, it was posted two weeks ago) I thought it would be pretty easy to put something together and started thinking about the possibilities.  Really, I did.  But then I decided I wasn't going to procrastinate getting my St. Patrick's Day project done, and told myself that it was a pretty sketch and it was going to be a one, two, three project.  It could wait.  And I should mention that I had developed this pain in my shoulder and my thumb and first finger were going numb.  So throw in a dr. visit, a physical therapy evaluation for a pinched nerve and now, twice weekly pt sessions after work. 

I finished the St. Paddy's project (more on that in another post) and thought some more on the sketch and got turned in another direction with a technique challenge that I saw that I wanted to try.  But I was still pondering the sketch.  

Then Rachel came home this weekend to wish her father a happy 60th birthday and, oops, oh yes, I had to make him a birthday card.  But I kept thinking about the sketch.  

I had a plan.  I knew what I needed. Problem was I just couldn't find it.  A die.  A very small die.  A pine bough die.  I should have started to look for it on Sunday when there was daylight up in the stamp cave.  But I had to finish the birthday card.

Monday was HWNSNBP's birthday and he was gracious enough to let me wander upstairs to continue to work on this card. You know looking for something often turns into rearranging and reorganizing and purging.  Some might call that productive procrastination, but as time flew by, the false joy I was feeling from that "productive procrastination" was quickly turning to frustration.   I gave up.  It would have to wait until the next day after pt.

Yesterday, I had exactly 10 mins to look for it between getting home to change and leaving for pt. Thankfully there was daylight.... in more ways than one.  I located the die I had in mind and was relishing in the fact that there were leftovers from the last time I used it and that would save time today when I actually started the card.   

I knew what colors I was using, they were going to be chocolate chip, garden green, and cream, with gold because I had this brown ribbon and gold-glittered wooden snowflake that I was going to use.  

Then I realized that the snowflake was way too large and it would cover up more of the tree than I wanted.  So I quickly made another plan and came up with this fabricated snowflake-center star on gold.  The brown ribbon didn't work - needed more gold.  And guess what........... I didn't even use the pieces of the die that I had spent all that time looking for.

Oh, but I did find all my camera software disks that I thought I had lost.

Please check out the other "Sketchy" cards here on the Jingle Belles blog.  And if you want to see some more cards (Christmas cards) with this color combination you can check it out here at Merry Monday.