Hello, Friends!
I decided to make a funny little Christmas card today for some challenges and here it is. Who knew when I was in college (a million years ago), a picture the girls on the 3rd floor in the dorm took would inspire a handmade card years and years later?! Back then, one person laid on the floor and the rest of us made a circle around that person and looked down at the camera, giggling like only college age girls can giggle. This is what the resulting picture looked like. Not exactly, of course. Our picture was of 19 year old silly girls. This is Santa, a penguin and a walrus, but you get the idea. (Just so you know, I don't think I ever expected to say "This is Santa, a penguin, and a walrus" in my entire life, especially so flippantly like it was completely normal. I'm a bit concerned about this. We'll move on for now.) So, when I was thinking about the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches #169 for this week, it reminded me of looking down into a circle or hole, not just a flat image stamped on a circle shape.
The brain is a mysterious thing isn't it? I can't remember what I had for lunch on Friday but all these years later this just happened to come to mind today. I knew the other challenges I was going to enter into were both Christmas Challenges so I broke out my Christmas Paper Smooches stamps. I just love their fun whimsical designs. Then it was time to get to work. Freshly Made Sketches encourages clean lined creations but it's not the same as clean and simple cards. They encourage lots of detail and embellishments as long as there is still a clean look to your card- lots of white space and clean edges. This is the reason there is a button and some bakers twine in a bow on my card. There are also more than one layer because of the paper on the side and the sentiment.
This card took some planning to create. The images are on the front of the card base. There is another layer of white card stock with a circle die-cut out of it that went on top of the card base with the circle opening around the images. This way, you can imagine laying on the floor, looking up, and seeing the faces of your Christmas friends. It took some planning to get the circles to line up and the faces to fit. Santa is a big boy and takes up more than his 1/3 of the circle, so the other two images have to fit in smaller spaces. The time spent planning was worth it, though, to get my card to turn out the way I had pictured it in my head.
Merry Monday Challenge is to create a Christmas card with Critters! Hooray! Cards with critters are my specialty. Especially cards with cute critters, whether it's wiener dogs, bunnies, hedgehogs, penguins, a walrus- whatever the critter, I knew I had to take part in this challenge as soon as I saw it, because if you haven't figured it out yet, I LOVE CRITTERS! Just look at the critter in the inspirational photo. It looks like a bunny from Muppets Christmas Carol. Does anyone know? Anyway, that critter is cute. I love critters. I'm in!
The ABC Christmas Challenge is Anything for Christmas (Optional antlers.) I didn't have any antlers that would work proportionally to my other stamps but I did have walrus tusks. I'm sure they're looking for the letter "a" in "antlers" which isn't anything close to the "t" in "tusks." My card is an "anything" cute card ready for Christmas so I think it counts even without the antlers.
Lastly, Paper Smooches, the creators of all of the stamps used on this card is having an "Anything Goes" challenge. Their stamps are so fun and they have awesome fonts for their sentiments. Since my card showcases their products, I wanted to enter it in the Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge.
Well, now you know one of the things I did for fun in college- took goofy pictures which I have immortalized in my scrapbooks, even before scrapbooking was a cool hobby to have. I'm so glad, too, because I'm still friends with a lot of those girls. Actually, a lot of them have offered their prayers and support during this awful back crisis, so remembering the good, clean fun we used to have is an awesome way to spend some time.
It's Sunday, so try to make time to go stamp a card that reminds you of something wonderfully goofy from your past. Trust me! It's really fun! Plus, I've got another Christmas card ready for 2015. Don't worry- you'll see more than just Christmas cards around here, but I just had to participate in Christmas Critters!
Happy Stamping, Friends!
I used the following products to make this card:
Santa Paws, Chilly Chums and Swanky Snowdudes Stamp Sets by Paper Smooches
Memento Tuxedo Black Ink by Tsukineko
Basic Gray Classic Ink by Stampin' Up
Solar White 110 lb Card Stock by Neenah
Real Red Card Stock by Stampin' Up
Frosty Friends 6x6 Paper Pad by Doodlebug Design Inc.
Copic Markers
Brights Designer Series Buttons by Stampin' Up
KI Bakery Twine by Hampton Art (the red, pink, purple card)
Stitched Circle and Pierced Fishtail Flags STAX Die-namics by My Favorite Things
