A Christmas Challenge!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven and welcome to my newest follower, Sam from 'Hettie Craft'. Christmas preparations are about to make an appearance here I think! I thought I was never going to start making cards, as I am such an easily distracted Magpie. One thing I love though is a challenge! Over at the Arty Inklings blog, there's a Christmas Challenge and not one but three beautiful prizes! Click here to find out more! There are some gorgeous entries and some entrants have managed more than one Christmas themed creation - Jacqui, I think, has excelled herself with four beautiful projects. I set myself the task of creating another card. Not much of a challenge, you might say, but you don't know how easily distracted I can be when it comes to card-making! In order to keep 'on task' I challenged myself. I now have some lovely Christmas paper and three beautiful plates of Christmas stamps, but I decided that I would try to create a Christmas card using non-specific stamps and a tiny scrap of Bo Bunny 'Snowdrift' paper I had left over in my stash from last year. Here is what I created for the Arty Inklings Christmas Challenge!

I used some Ranger Core-dinations canvas style paper in a Peacock blue to give me a nice strong, colourful background to work against and texture without making the card too bulky to mail. I bordered my top and bottom with a Tim Holtz 'On the Edge' snowflake die painted with a blend of Frescos: Ice Blue, Mermaid and a touch of Inky Pool. I then used gems and frantage and Stickles to add a frosty feel. I die-cut some baubles using a Spell-binders die and a little Paper Artsy bird from my last year's paper scraps. The script in the background is a Crafty Individuals stamp used on tissue painted with Frescos.

I love Lynne Perrella's mysterious ladies and I noticed how this image seems to emerge from wonderful embroidery, sequins and beading and to suggest all the glamour of a Liberty Christmas display! To make her more festive, I gave her a party hat, which I highlighted in a white Posca pen.

I used black Archival ink to stamp my ladies. The Lynne Perrella images are from LPC 009 and the party hat is from LPC 003. I turned the coin from 009 into a bauble too!

I didn't want the little bird to be just hovering so I made him a snowy branch from Posca pen with Frosted Lace Stickles and a blue gem for an eye. Thank you so much for dropping by today and taking a look at my latest card attempt. I should like to enter this for the Arty Inklings Christmas Challenge.