WWC167 - Gail's "All About Christmas" Challenge

I just looked at the calendar and it's precisely eight months until Christmas Day!  Can you believe it?  Thank goodness I'm getting some of my Christmas cards created ahead of time, thanks to our challenges.  This week Gail is our host for the "All About Christmas" challenge.  Any layout, any colour, anything goes, as long as it's Christmas.

I have to admit that I could not bring myself to use anything pertaining to snow for my Christmas card.  Call me crazy but there is still snow in my yard (although it's finally creeping back and melting) and I'm just so ready for a world without snow.  Until next winter, that is.  So I went for a fun card featuring that adorable little Dachshund and some Christmas cookies.  How fun is that!  And it's definitely about Christmas without adding the white stuff.  Bonus!

You won't recognize the yellow which I've used behind that wonderful sentiment.  It's one of our new In-Colors and is so much brighter and "yellower" than the others in our colour families.  For all the hand-colouring I've used my Stampin' Blends.  Otherwise I've added the new Pineapple Punch (yellow) and the Lovely Lipstick (red matte and red sentiment).  The gorgeous greens are stamped first in Memento Black and then in Tranquil Tide.  I love all these colours and love the happy feelings that this card evokes.  All the images are from one stamp set, the wonderful Ready for Christmas set (which is carrying over into the new catalogue---YAY!).  Whoops!  Wrong.  The yellow image behind the sentiment is from the brand new Love What You Do set.

I hope you'll check out the awesome creations by the other Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  And then, by all means add to your Christmas stash and link up your creation for us to enjoy.

Watercooler Wednesday Challenge #147 - Charlotte's "Anything Goes" Challenge

I was so stoked that this week would be an "Anything Goes" challenge!  I had been thinking about making a special shadow frame for Christmas and this challenge was perfect for something like that.

It all began with the super-adorable Ready for Christmas bundle.  When I saw it in the Holiday Catalogue, it was love at first sight.  And I wanted to show it off in a big way.  What better than a shadow frame, I thought.  And so began my obsession.  Whatever I happened to be working on, a small part of my subconscious was constantly at work with the planning for "my big project".

In the end I wound up combining that bundle with the Hearts Come Home stamp set as well as some unrelated Designer Series Paper and some retired products.  Amazingly it all came together beautifully, although the number of interruptions to my crafting time were staggering and I wondered whether the project would be finished in time or not.

I wanted texture for my shadow frame and so I reached for a piece of 12" x 12" retired Smoky Slate Core'dinations cardstock.  Without cutting, the shadow frame possible from a piece of 12" x 12" cardstock is 8" x 8".  I was fine with that and got to work.  For the inside background, after choosing and discarding a half dozen possibilities, I finally settled on a piece of the Naturally Eclectic Designer Series Paper.  I liked it against the Smoky Slate and it reminded me of snow.

For the presents, I turned to the Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper and to the retired Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper.  I stamped the adorable little Dachshund on a retired piece of Baked Brown Sugar and then stamped it again on a piece of Whisper White.  I cut out the doggie-sweater from the piece of Whisper White and coloured it with my Stampin' Blends before gluing it onto the little Dachshund.

You can see I cut the ornaments out from Glimmer paper and also Silver Foil using the dies from the Card Front Builder Thinlets.  This is what my finished project looked like on Monday night.

On Tuesday morning I knew it needed something more.  And so I cut out several more evergreen boughs and coloured some of the Clear Faceted Gems using my Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blender.  I also stamped Santa and his reindeer from the Hearts Come Home set using Smoky Slate and somehow managed to fussy cut the images out without beginning to drool.

This is the finished project and I love it.  I hope you do, too.

There are some wonderful projects created by our Watercooler Artists over at the Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.  I hope you'll check them out, too.

I've also entered my creation into the HLS Challenge - Anything Goes with Dies

I've also entered it in the SUO Challenge - Celebrate the Winter Holidays

And I've entered it in the Hand Stamped Sentiments - Inspiration Challenge

And, finally, I've entered it in the Merry Christmas Challenge -Anything Goes + Christmas