Christmas Wishes

Today is a two card day again! And, if you couldn’t tell by the title, this second one is a Christmas card. I made it as a response to Sweet Stampin’ Christmas‘s animals prompt along with Craftyhazelnut’s Christmas challenge for which the prompt is cute. I’m also tying in Craftyhazelnut’s Christmas Challenge Extra and Craftyhazelnut’s Patterned Paper challenge. The layout is SugarSketch 49 from Sugar Pea Designs.

 

First order of business was to find a cute animal to use. I was really, really tempted to buy something off of my wish list but I stayed strong and hunted down a digi stamp instead. I found this one (along with many other free-to-buy digis!), and whilst the tubby bear isn’t exactly what I’d initially had in mind he does have a certain cuteness about him! I coloured him in digitally (getting rid of the bees in the process, because I preferred it without), printed him off and fussy cut him.

Next I hunted down some patterned papers to use. I probably should have done that before colouring the image to make sure the colours worked well together. Luckily I had papers that coordinated nicely anyway. I found a lovely red patterned paper for the background with a twirly tree and snowflake design. I then found the white paper with a more subtle design of silver trees. Not having a punch or die cutter I used my craft knife and a glass to cut out the circle. Luckily having the bear over it hides the imperfections!

My last component was the strip across the front of the card. I considered finding another patterned paper but decided instead to use it for my sentiment. I don’t actually have any Christmas sentiments (in English…) at the moment, so I decided to construct one myself! It took some fiddling and masking, but I got it eventually. The “hope your” comes from Altenew’s Halftone Happy. “Wishes” is from the Avery Elle Petal Panel. And the rest of the sentiment I pieced together with the help of Lawn Fawn’s Jessie’s ABCs. It actually came together surprisingly well! I realised my last line was not well centred but I was fed up of moving the fiddly stamps around so I left it as is, and added a snowflake to the right to make it look intentional.

Finally it was time to assemble the card. I stuck the red panel down to the cardbase first then worked out positioning of the other components and stuck them down too. I used foam tape for the bear to add some extra dimension.

I’m actually really happy with how this card turned out. The sentiment worked so well, and the colours are perfect. The bear is both cute and humorous, and I already have someone in mind I can send this too!

Love,

Lady Joyful