Two more Christmas cards.

When I saw that CrazyHazelnuts challenge this week was to use a reindeer I knew exactly what I would do, because last week I bought two of the latest Marianne dies of a reindeer and a sleigh.

I cut the deer twice from tiny off-cuts of brown pearlescent paper. Then I looked for a piece of card for the sleigh and found a little rectangle of an alcohol background I must have made at some time for another project. It was just big enough so I used that. I decided I didn't like the empty sleigh so I searched clipart until I found a picture of Santa that I could use. I had to mirror image him and trim him up quite a bit, but I did manage to cobble something together. (If I made this again I would print him on different paper to make him stand out more). I then stamped a couple of SeeD's parcels to fill the space at the front of the sleigh and mounted it all on to some starry scrapbook paper that I also bought last week. I mounted this panel on to a white DL base card and it was sort of finished, but I wasn't very happy with it. It was all rather dull, so I drew a rough frame with diamond black stickles glitter glue - it's slightly smudged as it is very hot here and I was working with both my ceiling fan and a floor standing one on, and they suddenly lifted my card and flipped it over! But I salvaged it as best I could. I also added ice crystal stickles to the main stars, and after a rummage through my Christmas peel-offs I found this one that says 'Santa's on his way'. It's not a sentiment that I would normally use but it fitted this card quite well and filled the empty corner of sky.

So I am entering this card in:
CraftyHazelnuts Christmas Challenge 30: Reindeer.
Die Cut Dreams Challenge 94: Animal Antics.
Gingerloft Challenge 22: Make it Sparkle.
Creative Inspirations Challenge 64: Christmas in July.
Craft Us Crazy Challenge 13: Anything Goes.

And now for my second card. This one was for the Bah!Humbug! challenge which was to use some beads. I love beads but am not particulalry good at using them on cards. I get frustrated trying to thread them onto bits of ribbon or fibre to make a 'dangly' embellishment. However I remembered one of my bargain buys from many years ago, and sure enough, right at the bottom of my Christmas stash, I found a whole heap of peel-offs with pricking patterns on for stitching. I don't remember where they came from but whenever I find I have a lot of something, it is usually from a bulk buy pack at the QVC seconds shop in Shrewsbury, near to where I used to live. They sell items that have been returned, split packs, and some that have been opened to use a bit for a demonstration. Sometimes they bundle a whole lot of oddments together and sell them really cheaply, and I have found myself the owner of lots of things that I might not otherwise have bought, and they can come in very handy sometimes. Anyway, I chose a Christmas tree image and stuck the peel-off onto little scraps of green and red card. At that stage it looked like the picture on the left. Then I raided my lace-making boxes and found some metallic thread and beads, and before long it looked like the picture on the right. Then I just needed to make it into a card.

I decided to follow the sketch given for SFYTT July challenge which you can see over on I love to stamp , because it was a fairly simple one which suited my tree. I covered a white base card with some pale green paper and made a mat for the tree from vellum printed with holly. Then I cut a strip of darker green paper to go down the left side. All three papers were from a very ancient book of Christmas card kits which I think is Dutch. It's time I used some of them! The band across the bottom of the panel is Woodware paper lace coloured with copic markers. For the three top motifs I chose three different sized bauble peel-offs, stuck them to the left-over piece of pale green paper and also coloured them with copics. Then I cut them out and glued them to the card. To finish it off I added a silver star to the top of the tree and stamped a Crafty Individuals greeting at the base of the card in Memento cottage ivy. So here is the finished card. Sorry there are such deep shadows on todays photos. It was very sunny, but I still get better photos outside than indoors. I only took them out for a few seconds but the sun immediately made the corner of the vellum layer curl up. But I shouldn't complain. If I could bottle a bit of our sunshine and send it to you all I would!I am entering this in:

Bah! Humbug! Challenge 29: Beads.
Christmas Inspirations Challenge 29: Free Christmas project.
Delightful Challenges: Christmas in July.
A Sketch For You To Try: July Sketch.
Make it Monday Challenge 47: Any Craft project.

And I am linking this to Shirley Anne's blog, Stamping for Joy to add two more cards to my collection please.