A Card for Rosemary

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven! Today I managed to create a card for one of my oldest friends, Rosemary, which I should like to enter for the Arty Inklings Christmas Challenge. Rosemary is a  very creative person: weaving using her own vegetable dyes and rag-rug making to name just two of her interests, so I wanted her to be one of the people I send a hand-made card to this year. This is quite a simple card, but I used some of my favourite elements on it and I tried to choose what I thought might appeal to my old friend.

I used one of the Card Blanks I bought from The Range recently. I then cut a piece of Bo Bunny paper from the Silver and Gold collection and stuck it down, folding back each of the four corners a little. I then distressed them with some Vintage Photo and stamped in Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil Archival with the Paper Artsy Mini 26 script stamp. Rosemary is a real country girl, so I was sure she would love the beautiful swirling holly leaves. I first met Rosemary when I was fourteen and I had moved from London to the countryside. I recall coming upon some skeleton leaves on a walk with Rosemary when we were at school! I was such a 'townie' I had never noticed the amazing beauty under my feet before. Again, while at The Range, I bought some silver and gold skeleton leaves so I added them to this card.

I placed one in the corner of an image (Paper Artsy Ink School Days Plate 1) I had stamped onto a piece of Bo Bunny paper using Wendy Vecchi Potting Soil again - no - I don't have shares in Wendy's range, I just love this colour! I wanted to convey the impression of frost fronds on the window. The other one I placed in a little spray with the fir bough from Artistic Outpost's Snowy Woods plate stamped onto card painted with Nougat and Cinnamon and tied a piece of seam-binding dyed with Evergreen Bough and Festive Berries around them. I tore around the fir bough and edged with Stampendous Frantage in Shabby Blue. The window is a Tim Holtz die. I painted first with Old Gold Fresco, Crackle Glazed and then painted with Nougat Fresco, which I edged with Cinnamon. Before the paint was dry, I sprinkled with a little dry Distress Glitter by Tim Holtz to give a frosty look. I also stamped snowflakes randomly with Versamark and then embossed them with a mix of Mica flakes and Wow white embossing powder. The finishing touch is some narrow ribbon, almost the same shade as the Nougat window frame.

While at The Range I also spied some little holly leaf buttons, which went well with the paper design. This one is just threaded through with a little cream hemp. For the Sentiment I used the Lynne Perrella Collection stamp 0017 sponged with Nougat and Cinnamon and edged with Shabby Rose Frantage. The little boy on this image seems to me to have a look of wonder. I used him to represent the young C. S. Lewis on my Narnia panels, which reminds me of Rosemary's other passion! She collects children's illustrated books from long ago. I do hope this card will help her to know that I always remember her with affection, even though we don't see each other that much these days. Thank you for stopping by today and looking at another one of my Christmas makes. I should like to enter this for the Arty Inklings Christmas Challenge. Do check out some of the lovely entries that have linked to this challenge, if you can - you still have some time to join in!