Christmas Pup

Despite it only being February, this is the fourth Christmas card I’ve made this year. (And indeed I made three others after Christmas and before the new year!) This one is definitely one of the cuter ones, and I had a lot of fun creating it.

I started by creating my little scene. I first cut down a piece of smooth white card, then worked out the layout for my stamps. The little dog image as well as the bone come from a little Pink and Main set which was a freebie at the end of last year. (Here is a similar set available to buy.) The tree comes from Simon Says Stamps’ Christmas Cats set. I first stamped the bone and the dog, then masked them off and stamped the tree.

I picked out my patterned paper next as that would help me to chose colours for my image. I have a few different Christmassy patterned papers but settled on this one because it is very cute (which suits the cute dog!) and also I liked that it already had a sentiment.

With the colour scheme determined I started colouring my scene, I used watercolour pencils and tried to get my colours close to those on the patterned paper. I used my Wink of Stella to blend the colours out and add a hint of sparkle. I decided to add a strip of red mirror card along the bottom of the patterned paper, adding some more shine.

I then laid my elements out on a couple of different card bases before settling on the red as it worked well with the elements I had, and of course is a good Christmas colour! I used my glue pen to attach the mirror card to the patterned paper, then attached that panel to my card base with my tape runner. I used foam tape on the back of my banner, having cut a tail into the bottom, which added a bit of extra dimension. As a final embellishment I used my snow pen on the fluffy parts of the Christmas hats.

I’m very pleased with this card. The puppy is really adorable and fits surprisingly well with the Christmas tree (it helps that his hat hides the fish!) I really love the puffiness on the hats, especially on the bird’s one – so cute! I’m also happy with the colouring, though the white parts on the dog look more like grey, and apparently I forgot to add colour to his nose and paw… Oh well.

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

Craftyhazelnut’s Christmas Challenge – Anything Christmas and Optional: Something Green

Craftyhazelnut’s Christmas Challenge Extra – Anything Christmas

Craftyhazelnut’s Patterned Paper Challenge – Use Patterned Paper

Merry Monday – Stockings

Mojo Monday – Sketch/Layout (I did play around with different strings and ribbon but decided the card looked better without. And I didn’t add any further embellishments as I didn’t want to detract from the scene or patterned paper.)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday – Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday – Green