Last Christmas Card of 2017 for AHSC #244

Hello again, crafty friends!  I truly hope everyone had a truly wonderful Christmas holiday!  Several of my family members got sick over the holidays so we haven't been able to get together with everyone just yet but maybe this will just help us extend the magic of the season.  At any rate, I procrastinated a lot less this season but I still found myself running behind for a couple of projects so I managed to get one more Christmas card put together and this week's sketch at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge worked out perfectly for what I had in mind. 

This card is for my best friend's daughter who happens to have Downs Syndrome, and she is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  She is still a big believer in Santa and she has gotten into adult coloring books just lately (which is what we got her for her gift this year) so I thought it was only fitting to work in some watercolors on her Christmas card to show her I still like to color too!

details:  I started with the Christmas themed paper from the first year I discovered CTMH, which is called Believe.  I used black Memento ink to stamp this adorable Santa and reindeer images from last year's Reindeer Bells set, which I then filled in with watercolor pencils.  To frame the images, I ran pieces of white and Topiary (retired) cardstock through my Cuttlebug using this scalloped die with an embossed stitched border from My Favorite Things (MFT) and pieced them together.  For the sentiment, I used Versamark ink and white embossing powder with the retired Say It All stamp set.  Due to the stamped images I chose, I will also be submitting it to the Christmas Critters theme over at the Heart 2 Heart Challenge.

And now I officially done with the last of my Christmas cards and gifts and ready to get started on my goals for 2018, which definitely included more crafting projects!  I hope crafting continues to be in your future too, and that you find time to play with this week's sketch at AHSC.  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 12/31/17, to link your project HERE.

Thanks for stopping by happy crafting in 2018!  ~~  Annette

Silver and Gold Anniversary Wishes

Hello again, crafty friends!  I found inspiration from this week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge to make a festive - and shiny - anniversary card for my husband.  I designed it so that it looks like a "happy new year" kind of card because we actually eloped on December 31st over 30 years ago.

There is also a Silver and Gold theme going on this month at the Heart2Heart challenge blog this month, and it's been a long time since I've played along with their challenges so it will be a fun bonus for me to add this card to their gallery.

details:  I started with an 5.5 x 4.25" base of gold foil paper.  I ran a 5.25 x 4" piece of black cardstock through my Cuttlebug with the retired CTMH confetti embossing folder, and then I used a handy little hole punch tool from the Martha Stewart collection to punch out each of those holes so I could back the black with the gold paper and hopefully the pattern would look like shiny champagne bubbles rising to the top of the glass.  I then cut strips of silver and gold foil paper as well as strips of silver and gold glitter paper, all at 5/8 x 4", ran the glitter papers through the retired scallop border punch, and adhered them onto the the foil papers to create a scalloped interpretation of the 4 horizontal lines element of the sketch.  I used gold embossing powder and Versamark ink to heat emboss this sentiment from the retired Say It All stamp set on black paper backed with more silver foil.  The image of champagne glasses is from the M-sized Good Cheer stamp set (you will need to mask or carefully "amputate" the image to get the glasses without the sentiment in the middle), stamped with black Memento ink on White Daisy cardstock backed with another layer of both silver and gold foil papers.  I couldn't resist adding one more touch of sparkle by filling in the champagne glasses and bubbles with the gold shimmer brush, one of my favorite embellishments!

There are so many possibilities with this sketch at AHSC and we would love to see your take on it.  As always, you have until 10:55 pm Eastern/9:55 pm Central on Sunday, 12/17/17, to link your projects HERE.  You can also check out the rest of the design team's creations by following THIS link.  Happy holidays!  ~~  Annette