Guest Designer - 52 Christmas Card Throwdown

Welcome friends to my blog post as Guest Designer for:

My card submittal in November 2020 was chosen as the winner! I was then asked to be the guest designer for January 2021! Always a pleasure and an honor.

The color challenge for this card was to use green, brown and white and nothing else. Had to mull that over for a while and knowing that it has to be a Christmas Card. Pine cones and branches came to mind.

Here is my first card in white, green and brown:

I started by water coloring several sheets of water color paper, both Arches 140 lb. Cold Press and Ranger Water Color Paper. I used Altenew's 24 Pan Watercolor Set, wet-on-wet, one sheet of various greens and one of various browns.

Once totally dried (I usually wait several days), I die cut the water colored brown piece with 2 different dies: Fun Stamper's Journey (FSJ) Branch & Cone Die Set and Honey Bee Stamps Winter Bouquets. The Honey Bee set was for the "backer" for the pine cones since the FSJ's die cuts were just the outline. I wanted them with 2 layers with different variations of browns. The water colored green pieces were die cut the the same FSJ set, but just using the Branches. The are really lovely shaped branches and would make a wonderful wreath. 

I took the die cut pieces to my Tim Holtz Splat Box and splattered with watered down white acrylic paint using Tim Holtz's Splatter Brush. I have splattered every which way  in my time between decorative painting and paper crafting, but I have really found this brush to work perfectly. Gone are the toothbrushes!

To start the background I stamped MFT's Romantic Script Background Stamp with Scrapbook.com's Camel Hybrid Ink over 2 pieces of Neenah Solar Classic Crest 110 lb. White Card Stock. Leaves a nice subtle background, which I like. Did you notice this writing is from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice?

The large sentiment stamp is from Impression Obsession called Many Times. I stamped it with Scrapbook.com's Dark Chocolate Hybrid Ink onto Neenah White and die cut the piece with Spellbinder's Deckled Rectangles:

If you like the deckle edge look, this set has 5 different sizes - perfect for that Christmas vintage look. I used Scrapbook.com's Foam Blending Tools with some of the Dark Chocolate Hybrid Ink to make the edges stand out from the background.

I made 2 cards overall (surprise). Here is the second card I made in the same manner, but used FSJ's Stay Cozy Stamp Set:

Here's a close up showing the details:

The final embellishments are from Trinity Stamps Cave Crystals Confetti Mix, they are photographing blue, but are an iridescent.

Thank you friends, for staying to the end. Also, a big thank you to the team from 52 Christmas Card Throwdown  for inviting me to be guest designer. On a side note - now I have also started my 2021 Christmas Cards! If you have time, and want to "Throwdown" come join the challenge and get an early start on your cards for 2021!

*Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.