A post today to share a card I created over the past few days…..yep – past few days! This took some drying time for some elements, decisions about colours – and whether to use Copics, or coloured card stock. Here is my card:

It may not look like it, but this was a labour of love – I kept going, knowing it would get there eventually…….!

The background blue panel was using some Spellbinders ‘Silks‘ recently obtained as part of a virtual crafting kit. I’ll need to play with them more as they have a really clear shine – but I think I watered it down too much. Whilst this was drying I turned to the snowbanks.

I played with snowbank layers and levels to create the three hills. These were all stuck down onto the base card – the uppermost layer with 3D foam, and some Hero Arts ‘sparkle clear lacquer pen‘ used for the snowy tops – again something else to set aside and dry…..

I then took a Concord & 9th die set and die cut all the pieces from white Neenah, then eventually decided to colour all the houses with warn grey or cool grey Copic markers – varying shades – to come up with how they look here.

The pop of red and green for the door wreaths were also coloured with Copics, as were the three lamp-posts.

All windows and the light of the lamps were the bits that fall out of the die – stuck back in when coloured with yellow. There were a lot of very small, teeny-tiny pieces of sticky tape on the back of each to keep them in place.

Then I decided to add some of the sparkle glitter to each of those houses and windows -and something else to let dry……..

Patience is not my strong suit, so I left them overnight to dry – because I’m also a little clumsy and I feared there would be smudges etc if I worked with them too soon.

Once I had stuck everything down – I remembered the sentiment. Typical of me….last thing to stamp on a layered card……really? I used my Misti – minus the mat – and gingerly stamped and heat embossed the sentiment…….heart in mouth……I could always cover it with a banner……but it worked out thank goodness.

I shall be entering the following challenges:

Christmas Cards All Year Round – Christmas with cottage/cabin – option of pink not taken

Peace On Earth Challenge – Christmas and Inspiration Board – (scene, snow)

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge – anything goes Christmas – option to use green – a very little on the wreaths

Allsorts Challenge – hand coloured or paper piecing (hand coloured house/cottage layers, paper-pieced cut-outs back in place)