Saturday, August 29, 2015

Back to Christmas

It was unseasonably cool here this week, so what better time to get back to making Christmas cards? Through an incredibly long and involved process, I managed to incorporate four different challenges, and only one is Anything Goes! 
Shopping Our Stash's challenge this week is Splish Splash, to use a wet medium on a project. I of course wanted to be a smart aleck and do a stamped card since ink is wet, right? But I decided to get with the program and watercolour. But what to watercolour, exactly? I thought back to this tag and card I made last year. Since I was using a tag element, I checked the latest Tag You're It challenge for further inspiration. I liked the die cut sentiment and the placement of the tag on the finished card. Then it was off to Merry Monday Christmas Challenge and their colours of light green, dark green and red. Simon Says Stamp is my Anything Goes challenge. 
Sorry about all that! Here's my card:



I thought the gradient tag was a great way to incorporate light and dark green. Then I watercoloured through a holly stencil and echoed the light to dark as best I could. The red comes in through the glitter die cut, the ribbon and the card base — I might have preferred a green base, but that particular tone does not exist in my many (many) greens. 
Then I made another one! 



I used a different green (Memento cottage ivy ink instead of Koh-in-oor watercolour) and sponged inks through the stencil before distressing the edges of the stencilled panel. 
One more Christmas card and I'll be up to a dozen for this coming season! 



Supplies (card 1) Stampin' Up real red & glitter cardstock, Strathmore watercolour paper, Koh-in-oor pan watercolours, Paper Smooches stitched tag die, Papertrey Ink joy die, ARTplorations holly background stencil, May Arts ribbon, pop-dot tape; (card 2) similar except: Stampin' Up naturals cream cardstock, Memento cottage ivy & Stampin' Up real red inks

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15 comments:

Kathy Schweinfurth said...

Love the stencil and water coloring - both cards are lovely!! Thanks so much for joining us at Merry Monday

Donna said...

I LOVE this colour combination... so you've won me over already!!!
Gorgeous background :)
Thanks so much for joining us over at Tag You're It :)

Chris Dring said...

Ooooh! I really like both versions!! Wow! These are gorgeous. And look at you, getting all wet medium on us! Thanks for joining in the fun at Shopping Our Stash!

Heather said...

I love the beautiful green color in the first card, although the more traditional colors are nice also. And...woo! Hoo! A whopping 11 cards so far??? Wow! You better hurry, Christmas will be here real soon. Lol

Leslie Hanna said...

These are both quite striking!

Bonnie said...

I love that sponged holly with the ombre tags! Thanks for sharing these with us at Merry Monday!

Andrea D. La Vigne said...

I never thought of watercoloring through a stencil. Such a cool look! Love the colors you used on both cards. Tfs! ~ Andrea Andrea's Paper Antics

Anonymous said...

Both are lovely Lindsey, the tone of green you've used is unusual but so pretty and I like it framed in red.

Mandy said...

Gorgeous cards Lindsey! I love the holly background and the sparkle looks so pretty.
Thanks for joining us at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge
Mandy xx

Erin (Homemade Cards by Erin) said...

Love these, the joy really pops on both of these projects. Many thanks for joining us at Tag You're It Challenge.

Kara Lynne said...

I love the way you incorporated all the challenges and came up with a beautiful Christmas card! I love the sparkly "Joy" and that little snip of red ribbon! Thanks for joining in on the fun over at Tag, You're It!

Lisa Arana said...

oooh, these are so very lovely. Christmas cards have been making an appearance for me as well. Golly, do you think I'll be prepared this year? Nah.

anja curvers said...

Wow this is great love the background. Thank you for joining us over at Tag You're It.

Jeanne J. said...

Both of these are beautiful. I'm leaning toward the first - love that blue green with red - one of my fave color combos.

Jessi Fogan said...

WATERCOLOURING THROUGH A STENCIL? Why haven't I ever tried that? I absolutely LOVE these :)