Monday, December 6, 2021

Winter and Christmas

I've participated in The Card Chain Challenge (CCC) for many years.  I used to keep track of where the cards I received came from--lots of different countries!  Most months I use the generic theme of friendship.  My November card went to one of our leaders, Gail in Norway.  The color option of midnight, gold & silver plus the theme option of snowflakes were my inspiration.  
I pulled out On Trend MME paper pad I HAD to have, but have barely used.  Love the gold metallic dots on white.  There was a scrap of a silver foiled toner sheet on my table, so made use of it.  Didn't have printed paper with blue snowflakes, so I just stamped the sweet cluster image from Uniko's Big & Bold Snow stamp set in Delicata Sapphire Blue.  I didn't want a white background, so I lighted brushed the same ink over the stamping.  My old 1 inch punch was quick & easy to get exact squares.
Originally I was going to do the Disappearing Nine Patch design, but I couldn't bring myself to do the cutting as I really liked the pattern.  I'd forgotten about Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Square dies I've had a long time.  It is beautiful & just the right size to use for this design.  The sentiment words & die cut are Winnie & Walter--a company I really miss.  I stacked the word & covered it with Nuvo Glaze.
Hubby's birthday is this month & I wanted to enter PTI What do I do with This challenge to make a white on black sentiment strip.  I've seen some great tree cards done in black & white, so decided to give it a try using PTI Enchanted Forest stamp set.  
The trees were stamped in black & embossed with Hero Arts Sparkle ep.  The snowflakes from the set were stamped in Delicata Silvery Shimmer.  For the sentiment, I white embossed the words from PTI Wreath for all Seasons on a black strip which also served to ground the trees.  
The card front edges were swiped with the silver ink--an old technique I've gone back to using more often.  
Don't worry--I do have another Christmas card to share!  I like many color combos for holiday cards including the traditional one.  Color Hues challenge inspired me to make another red & green card.  I've been debating what to make for the Uniko Celebrate challenge which has a twist of red & green.  Wreaths are a favorite image & I've made several cards with them recently.  But none of them were holly wreaths, so pulled out my Gina K 4 inch Wreath Builder template & Uniko Winter Foliage stamp set.  
The leaves were double stamped in Altenew Forest Glades & Frayed Leaf.  To fill in the white spaces, I stamped the pine branch from Uniko Season of Beauty in Forest Glades one time.  That gave me 3 green shades.  Altenew Ruby Red is a gorgeous ink for berries.  I masked in order to splatter green in the center & red around the edges.  I wanted thin lines of glitter, so used a Quickie Glue pen with ultra fine glitter giving a beautiful sparkle in person. 
I matted the square so just a thin black frame shows & stamped the sentiment from Season of Beauty in Brilliance Graphite Black.  That is one of my oldest ink pads & I need to use it more often.  It does a wonderful job stamping sentiments.  I'm also entering TTTC 142 using glitz, free, Christmas.
Thanks so much for taking time to stop by.  If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.



17 comments:

  1. You've been busy, Greta! You've inspired me to use blue with this pretty card, I don't use it often enough! Those tall skinny trees are terrific and I love the wreath you've created!

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  2. Three more charming cards to brighten the festive season. That shade of blue is gorgeous. The trio of trees look lovely in the snow and your holly card is superb. The sentiment is unique; I've not seen one like that before. x

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  3. Absolutely gorgeous cards Greta. Love the blues and golds on your first card. It turned out beautiful and yes the design look great. The rest of your cards are just as awesome.

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  4. Hi Greta
    Fabulous card Selection…all stunning …
    Hugs Sylvie xx
    Merry Christmas xx

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  5. Greta, the midnight, gold and silver card is stunning. A great design and beautiful colors. Hubby's card is a great masculine card. The wreath builder card is another pretty Christmas card.

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  6. Greta, another lovely collection of cards here. Loving those trees best.

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  7. Love the papers you used on your first card, with the great sentiment, LOVE the embossed trees, it looks so masculine. A beautiful wreath card finishes off your lovely & wonderful set of cards Greta.
    Faith x

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  8. Greta, I enjoyed your post and reading your processes. Your warm winter wished card is really fun and I love the layout/design. Your CAS birthday card works well for a masculine card and as for the last card...it looks as if it was printed as it it so perfectly done. The glitter pen was such a nice touch, and glad you captured it in the last photo for us to appreciate. Thanks for joining us at Color Hues and Happy Holidays to you!

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  9. Stunning and creative first card, striking CAS card for your husband and your holly wreath card is so very pretty Greta x.

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  10. Happy to see one of your beautiful cards in both the Uniko & Color Hues galleries Greta!

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  11. Fabulous design for the CCC, Greta - bet Gail loved it!! And I love your holly and berry card too!!

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  12. beautiful set of cards, greta. loving the wreath on the last card... so very pretty!

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  13. On the holly card, lovely stamping, great colors and such a pretty wreath. Festive and so fun! Thanks for joining us at Color Hues!

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  14. Lovely to see you post your CCC card, I came looking for it earlier and now I have found it with some bonus cards too. Love those stylised trees xx

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  15. What great wreath, it just shows that the wreath builder can be used without the specialised stamps too. Thanks for sharing at Uniko and at Color Hues. :)

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  16. WOW ! What a beautiful bunch of cards ! I particularly love the blue tiles one, so beautiful. But your wreath is also so pretty. Love how you built it. Thanks so much for sharing and for playing along at Uniko.

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  17. Beautiful trio of winter and festive cards. Always a delight to see your creativity and you in the gallery at Uniko. Thanks so much for sharing and joining in on the fun at Uniko. Crafty Hugs Bev

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Thanks so much for taking time to stop by. If your blog address is in your profile or comment, I will visit you.