A crafty friend, Myra (YT: craftyrats), is collecting holiday cards that she is going to be distributing to seniors during the holidays. I love supporting wonderful crafty causes like this, but I also thought (hoped) it would jump start me a bit on my holiday card making since I had completely missed “Christmas in July.” LOL
Since these cards are going to be for seniors, I wanted to have an elegant traditional look so I thought about using white poinsettia flowers as the main focal point. I found an image of one online that I printed out and fussy cut out. I bordered half of the petals with Champagne Stickles and used an embossing tool to give the flowers some sparkle, texture and dimension. I layered these on top of gold foil paper doilies and layered one of these flower-doily combos on top of embossed textured card stock that I inked with Hickory Smoke Tim Holtz Distress Ink. I layered the other on top of polka dot vellum that I adhered onto a corrugated kraft card base. All this layering was great and gave a nice finished look, but I thought they were a little too predictable.
So to add a little whimsy, I decided to use the Essentials by Ellen “ELF’D” stamp set that I fell in love with but only got to use once last year. I stamped out a couple of them and colored them up with the following Copic colors:
Skin: E51, E53 and BV000 (for shadow); Hair: E55 and Y35; Red elf: R14, 17 and 37; Coral elf: R21, 22 and 24; and Black boots: 100
I fussy cut them both out and inked the edges so you can’t see the white edge of the paper. Then for the fluffy white parts of their hats, I used DecoArt Snow Writer to add some dimension and texture.
Oh yes, these little cuties–one popping up from behind a flower and the other sitting in the center of a flower–added just the right touch of fun. I heat embossed the “Embrace Your Inner Elf” sentiment with Ranger Queen’s Gold embossing powder and hand cut these sentiments into a fishtail banner. I popped these up on foam dots and added them to the lower left of the card fronts. I kept the insides of the cards simple, simply matting white card stock with some gold foil patterned paper scraps and stamping out another sentiment from the stamp set: “Have Yours-Elf A Merry Little Christmas.”
These Christmas cards are going to be entered into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Make for the Border Challenge
CAS-ual Fridays Time to Color Challenge
Lil Patch of Crafty Friends Anything Goes Challenge
Fab ‘n’ Funky Anything Goes Challenge
Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
Creatalicious Anything Goes Challenge
Craft Your Passion Anything Goes Challenge
Crafty Gals Corner Any Holiday Challenge
Addicted to Stamps and More Make Your Mark Challenge
Essentials by Ellen August Pin-Sights Challenge – white flower, coral color (popping up elf)
Love this – so cute and whimsical and would a holiday smile to anyone. Love it!! Thanks so much for joining us this time at the Craft Your Passion Challenge, Elizabeth (DT)
GORGEOUS cards. Love the classic colour combination for Christmas cards. The dimension is pretty! Thanks for playing along Simon Says Stamp Challenge. Gayatri xx
These are lovely and cheeky! Thank you for joining our challenge at Lil Patch of Crafty Friends!
Tracyx (DT)
OMG! Love that sentiment and your card is super sweet! Thank you for taking part in ATSM challenge!
Kamila DT
These are so fantastic! Great coloring and I really like your design! Thanks so much for joining us at CAS-ual Fridays!
The textures are simply awesome!
I love how detailed they are!
Thank you for sharing your talents with us over at Creatalicious. I love the sweet image and how you have showcased it. It’s just perfect for our challenge. Hugs Nina
A wonderful card!
Thank you soo much for taking part in our “anything goes with optional black & white + one colour” challenge over at Creatalicious & good luck in the draw.
Hope to see you again in our new challenge as well…
Hugs,
Melanie
(DT-Coordinator Creatalicious Challenges)
(DT Crafty Friends)
(DT The Sketchy Challenges)
Thanxx for playing with us this week at little patch of crafty friends beautiful creation
Sherry @Lpocf DT
Thank you so much Sherry!
Love the combo of cute and elegant. Thanks for joining us at FabNFunky.
Happy crafting!
Catherine x DT
Awww thanks so much Catherine! I really appreciate your sweet comment!