Deck the Halls Birdbrain

It seems I am on a roll when it comes to creating Christmas cards, and about time too, because Christmas is approaching fast and I still have quite a few cards to make...

Fortunately, this card came together quite fast. After printing this adorable Free Stamp of the Month November chick (Deck the Halls Birdbrain) by From the Heart Stamps, together with one of the accompanying sentiments (this one really cracks me up), I used my Spectrum Noir coloured pencils to add a soft layer of colour and then blended it using a paper stump and odourless mineral spirits. I cut the panel using my SSS stitched rectangle die, matted it onto some pink cardstock from my stash and adhered it to an A2 sized card base. As a finishing touch, I added a little clear Wink of Stella and coated the ornaments and eyes with Glossy Accents.

Challenges:

FTHS Free Stamp of the Month Challenge

Merry Monday - 182 Birds

The Challenge - 53 Non-traditional Christmas card
SSS Wednesday challenge - Anything goes
SSS Work it Wednesday November - Holiday cards
The Cutie Pie - 93 'Simply' Cute and Christmassy

Christmas robin

Earlier this week, I won a digital stamp during Beccy's Month of Christmas Card challenge. Her next challenge prompt (Day 29) was to use the newest item in your stash. So I knew what was being expected of me lol.

I had picked this particular image (Baby robin) from Beccy's shop because I had left her a comment earlier this week saying that I loved to see coloured birds on cards but was a little scared to colour them myself. Me and my big mouth...

Anyway, I printed the image onto Neenah solar white cardstock, grabbed my Spectrum Noir coloured pencils and a book on European birds (purchased last May), took a good look at the European robin and set to work. And I have to confess I really loved colouring this sweet image using pencils AND I love how it turned out.

After my colouring was done, I had a look at my container of Christmas offcuts and found these three patterned paper pieces; the large one and two smaller ones. Just perfect for this week's sketch at Tuesday Morning Sketches. It's been ages since I've played along, but then it's also ages since I made a layered card.

After putting the card together, I thought it needed just a little something extra, so I added a few stray embellishments I happened to have put in my bits and bobs container. The sentiment is from the Merry Everyday stamp set by Simon Says Stamp.

Challenges:

Beccy's Place - A Month of Christmas Cards - Day 29 Something new

Tuesday Morning Sketches - TMS#328

Jingle Belles - Holiday leftovers

Christmas Card Challenges - 52 Anything goes
Papertake Weekly - Take your pick: Colours - Red and/or green
SSS Wednesday challenge - Anything goes
SSS Work it Wednesday - Holiday cards

25 Days of Christmas tags - Holly

After seeing Natasha's tag on day 24 of the 25 Days of Christmas Tags, I immediately thought of the small holly stamps I had in my stash. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to put them to good use.
BTW, the inspiration for day 24 came from the Design Team of the Muse: Christmas Vision card club. Somehow I had completely missed this week's post, but I blame it on my computer (the hard disk of my laptop was failing, so I had to confiscate my husband's laptop and set it up so that I could continue working until the new hard disk arrives, and deliver my translation work with the slightest possible delay).

I stamped two panels, one using an outlined image to be coloured the way Natasha had done, and one using solid images (Brushstroke Christmas by Julie, Essentials by Ellen) and my new Altenew crisp inks.

I didn't have enough time to colour the outlined images, so I went with the panel with solid images first. For the sentiment, I stamped the JOY stamp (from another stamp set designed by Julie Ebersole) using Altenew ink onto a snippet of vellum and heat-embossed in clear embossing powder and then stamped the second part of the sentiment using black Altenew ink. I fussy cut sentiment and adhered it to the tag using pieces of transparent dimensinal tape. Most of my ribbons are hidden in a box somewhere, but I did find this gorgeous ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon) in my drawer. A bow of Hemptique twine was added and another tag was finished.

Challenges:

25 Days of Christmas Tags
Muse: Christmas Visions 30
Rudolph Days Challenge