52 Christmas Card Throwdown - "Baubles" challenge

 The theme challenge for July from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is "baubles".  

Here is my card for the challenge.  The ornaments were stamped and colored with Olo markers.  I lightly ink blended around the edges of the snowflake patterned paper and added some shimmer pen to areas of the ornaments for some sparkle.

March Theme Challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown

 The March Theme Challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to include candy cane(s) on your project.

Here's my card, using a stamp and stencil set from Pink & Main, with a sentiment from Concord & 9th.

We're only nine month away from Christmas - not too early to be working on Christmas cards!

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - sketch challenge

 There's a new sketch challenge for March at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

I went vintage style with my card for the challenge:

The Santa was stamped with brown ink and then lightly tinted using Tim Holtz watercolor crayons.  I added a few gold star sequins and some gold snowflake rubons.  The background stamp is from Stampabilities and the Santa image is from Paper Artsy.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - color challenge

 Here's the current color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

I used a die from Taylored Expressions and a sentiment from an old Hero Arts set for this card.  Part of the diecut was backed with blue cardstock for a sky, and the rest backed with white glitter cardstock for snow and the windows/door of the church.  The sentiment was stamped and heat embossed in white.

This ended up being a simple card to make and would be easy to mass produce if you needed several cards.  Normally I would die cut the silhouette image from black cardstock, but I like the softer look of the light brown. 

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - technique challenge

 I'm joining in the June technique challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  The technique is to create a pinwheel tower card.  This is a card fold I hadn't seen before, but I found this tutorial by Lynn Dunn.  You can see her tutorial and video here.

Photos of my card are below.  The first is a top down photo so you can see how the card stands up.  (It folds flat for mailing.)  Each side is pictured below.  Two sides have poinsettias and greenery, one has a sentiment and one has a sentiment with white space for signing below it.

This was a fun card to make.  Now I want to try a Halloween themed pinwheel fold!

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - March theme challenge

 The theme challenge for March at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is Rudolph/reindeer.

I used some stamps from My Favorite Things to create a slimline card featuring Rudolph, Santa, a few elves.  The images were colored with Olo markers.  These images just make me smile!

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - color challenge

 There is a color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown right now:

This is a little different color combo for me, but I really wanted to try it and this is what I came up with:

I used a Tim Holtz embossing folder on watercolor paper for the snowman image, then I swiped an embossing pad over the raised portion and embossed with white embossing powder.  The snowflakes were stamped in white and embossed with a clear glitter powder, then diecut.  I added a stamped and embossed sentiment and a few gold gem stickers to finish off the card.  The embossing in white and glitter doesn't show up well in the photo, but it gives a subtle bit of shine and sparkle in person.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Fussy Cutting challenge

 The technique challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to use fussy cutting on your project. I try to keep my fussy cutting to simple images, and I had a leftover piece of Simple Stories paper that worked well.

I fussy cut the little houses and the heart and added a little shimmer pen to the windows.  Cute and simple and used all scraps!

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - May Color Challenge

 Here is the May color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

I'll admit that this one was a challenge, but I really wanted to figure out how to use these colors on a Christmas card.  I ended up going with a snowy theme.

I diecut the snowflake frame and then stamped some snowflakes around the frame in peach and gray ink.  The snow people were stamped and colored in gray and peach and I used gray and white polka dot paper behind them.  This turned out pretty good for a non-traditional color holiday card!

Black and Silver Christmas card

 I'm sharing a card that I made for two challenges.  I tried something different both in color scheme and technique, and it turned out okay!

I started with black cardstock, and stamped the Concord & 9th Deck the Halls Turnabout stamp in white pigment ink, then embossed over the top with Wow Cloud 9 glitter embossing powder, which is a cool iridescent silver.  The "merry" was diecut from silver cardstock and mounted on a piece of black cardstock, then adhered to the stamped background with foam tape..  The "Christmas" was stamped and embossed in silver on black cardstock, then fussy cut and adhered overtop of the merry piece.  The Merry Christmas sentiments are from Concord & 9th's All the Merrys set.  The whole piece was then adhered to an A2 piece of silver cardstock and adhered to a card base.  

This card is for the Jingle Belles challenge (only cardstock allowed) and for the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge (silver & black color scheme).

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - February Theme Challenge

 The February Theme Challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to create a masculine holiday card. 

 I decided to use a stamp set from Pink & Main that I've had for a year or two, but haven't used much.  There are several holiday themes in this set, but I decided on the Christmas tree.

The background stamp is from Ink Blot Shop.  I colored it with Copic markers, added some ink blending to the sky and a strip of black cardstock for the road.  Everything was splattered a bit with white ink and clear Stickles added to the snowy ground.  The truck was popped up with foam adhesive.  This would work for any truck lover on your Christmas card list!

a monotone challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown

The current color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to create an all white card.  This is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I wanted to take the challenge!

I used my Cricut to diecut the snowflake cover out of white shimmer cardstock.  I dry embossed a piece of white cardstock and adhered that to the back of the card front, and added a few clear gems to the snowflake center.  Funny how each type and brand of white cardstock is just slightly different!

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Technique/Stash challenge

Here is the new challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown, with a minimum of three embellishments clustered together.

I used some Graphic 45 paper and a Tim Holtz image sticker for my card, to go with a vintage style.

The image sticker was mounted on patterned paper and adhered with foam tape for some dimension.  I added a gold fabric tree behind the image and a couple of gold gem stickers on top.  

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - snowflake challenge

The June theme challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwndown is snowflakes. It's another 90+ day with lots of humidity here, so it's nice to imagine cooler weather, even with a little snow thrown in!

It's a little hard to see in the picture, but the white cardstock was dry embossed with snowflakes, and I also added a snowflake sequin.  Santa is a Cricut print & cut image from Anna Griffin, with some glitter added to his hat.  The sentiment is from Taylored Expressions.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - July theme challenge

The July theme challenge @ 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to use non-Christmas images on your Christmas card.

I used an old teddy bear stamp that I've had for probably 2 years, and a package stamp from a Hero Arts birthday set.

I used some brown and kraft Christmas papers and a sentiment stamp from Mama Elephant to finish off the card.

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - sketch challenge

Here is the January sketch challenge @ 52 Christmas Card Throwdown:

Seems appropriate to have a card sketch that resembles a wrapped present, right?  Here's my take on the sketch. 

I really like traditional red and green for Christmas, so kept with that color scheme and just used some pretty holly paper, a sparkly button and a dimensional sticker...simple Christmas style!

Silver snowflakes

The new color challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to use silver on your card.  I used Gina K's wreath builder template and a couple of her stamp sets for this snowflake wreath.  Everything was stamped in silver on navy cardstock and then heat embossed with silver.  

Only about 10 more weeks til Christmas now, so time to get serious about those Christmas cards!  

Watercolor Christmas card

I ordered the Tim Holtz/Simon Says Stamp Stamptember set a couple of weeks ago and had a chance to play with it a little bit over the weekend.  For this card, I stamped the holly image three times in the upper left corner and once in the lower right corner, letting part of the image stamp off the card front.  I used Distress Oxide inks to watercolor the holly images and apply a light wash of blue over the rest of the card front.

Sentiment: Right at Home stamps, Ranger watercolor paper, Ranger super fine detail gold embossing powder

The sentiment was stamped in gold ink, then again in Versamark and embossed in gold.  I added a little bit of gold embossing to the edges, also.  Watercolor isn't something I'm good at, but I think the holly images lent themselves to that medium.

I'm entering this in these challenges:

Crafyt Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge - anything goes if it/s Christmas

Winter Wonderland - anything goes if it's Christmas

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - coloring challenge

Christmas Card Throwdown challenge - wreaths

The temperature here was almost 100 degrees, and it's not even officially summer yet!  It was a good day to stay inside and think cool thoughts and work on Christmas cards.  :)

The current challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to create a card with a wreath on it.

Here's my card for the challenge.  I used a Tim Holtz stamp, colored with Copic markers, along with circle and rectangle stitched dies and a woodgrain embossing folder.  

Just think....only six more months to get those Christmas cards done!