OWH VCMP Follow-up: Blog Candy Winner and Holiday Card Directions

Hi everyone,

A HUGE THANK YOU  to everyone who made holiday cards during OWH's VCMP. Our heroes and their loved ones will surely appreciate them.

As promised, the following post provides shares the techniques and decisions involved in the making of Frosty's Lil Friend and Three Times the Greenery. But first, a drum roll please....

And, the blog candy goes to...

Ann M. Congratulations, Ann!  Please send me a street address or P.O. Box to which I can send the Stampendous stamp set. 

And, I'd love to know where you found this sentiment. It is perfect for OWH holiday cards.

Thanks again to everyone who played along. What a great group of cards -- don't think I could choose a favorite if I had to...  :)

Frosty's Lil Friend

• Frosty's Lil Friend  started with a post-it note sketch. [Okay, actually two sketches when the first looked more like a bird than a snowman. :) ]

 

 

• I chose the stash papers I wanted to use -- and made sure I had enough of each type to complete the card. (Trust me, I've learned this lesson the hard way!) Then I made sure I had just the right fiber and floss to coordinate with the papers.
• I used a Creative Memories circle to draw the biggest circle possible on a folded 4.25-by-5.5 inch card base.
• Next, I free-handed a top hat and the beginnings of the snowman's body on the card base. Then I cut along the outline through both layers of the card.
•  I cut out the head and snowman body separately from the first paper, using the card outline as my templates. (You could cut out one solid shape, but I chose to go with a separate head for more of a 3-D look.)
• To make the hat, I heat embossed the second paper using clear powder to add a little extra sheen and texture. Then, I used the card outline as a template to cut out the top hat. Once again, I made the decision to make this element out of two separate pieces.
• The nose, which is "two-ply",  was cut from the AC cardstock.
• Darker pastels were used to shade the left side of the face, under the head, and the left and bottom of the nose. A lighter pastel was used to highlight the right side of the face.
• The buttons were "dressed" and the fiber was attached.
• Before adhering the buttons and nose, each element was placed on the card to get just the right placement before applying the glue dots and tape. 
• Finally, I used Martha Stewart's branch punch from a third s.e.i. paper to add a little interest to the hat.

Three Times the Greenery

First, a brief history. I met Ashley when she was working at her mom's LSS Pizazz It! She makes great designs for scrapbook pages, from which I make cards. Three Times the Greenery was inspired by the sketch below.

 

• Once I chose to use Bo Bunny's Father Christmas paper, I decided to use three punched-out trees for the three "photos".
• The green circle was cut from the same paper as the trees to help "pop" the trees. 
• I heat embossed a swirl design on the circle to add a little interest to the circle and to better connect it with the swirls in the base paper. So that the embossed circle wouldn't have a greater importance than the trees, I heat embossed the tree paper before punching out the trees.
• Then, I put reddish paper behind several elements, including around the light green rectangle in order to provide a visual break between it and the green circle.
• Border punching the left side of the red rectangle was the last step before adhering the elements. (Trees have a second layer of trees underneath them.)

 This week's  CAS-ual Friday's Challenge is to make a card featuring embossing -- dry, heat or both. Think I'll post Three Times the Greenery. Even though it has several different elements, it still feels CAS-like to me in its focal point. And, I really do love the way this one turned out.

Parting Thoughts

Such a pretty day here and so many things to do: walking off yesterday's family reunion Calories, watching a pro football game or two -- especially my favorite team who's on at 1:00, reading on the front porch, and making OWH cards. Hope I manage to get them all in. :)

Thanks for stopping by and happy scrappin'!