A crop party is a modern quilting bee. A group of friends gather to have girl friend time, sharing joys and sorrows while preserving memories and creating a special keepsake.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Merry Penguins





This week's Merry Monday challenge is to create a Christmas card featuring critters with this inspiration photo:




Cute little critter plus snow meant only one thing:  the ice skating penguin from a retired Close to My Heart set, Winter Wishes.  I embossed him with clear detail powder to help him pop, colored him with a ShinHan marker, and while I was coloring, colored a bitty sparkle to give him a sparkle butt.  Amy Kiger would be so proud!  I wanted to use this sketch from Freshly Made Sketches and pop up the center panel like several of the designers did.  They call them inspiration projects for a reason...




There was one problem.  I wanted to make a border using use a strip cut from Snowhaven which had black on each side.  I was concerned that with the center popped up, you would be able to see the edge of the border if I used a white card base.  The solution was to use a black card base.  To keep the white core from showing I ran the edges of the borders across a black ink pad.  This is what the card looked like without the center panel:




To make the center panel I used the Cricut Design Space to cut the opening and then embossed it using a folder by Darice.  Anytime I am going to emboss a shape or something with an opening I always do all the cutting first so that I can position the paper in the embossing folder so that the embossed design compliments the shape. That is how I got the snowflakes to dance around the opening. I cut a red and white strip for the horizontal element but decided it was too much red and and that a strip with black and white and a touch of red would work better.  Rather than waste the first piece, I used it on the inside:




I used ShinHan markers to put black dots at the center of the flowers and color the ornament and a chalk marker in the ornament's center.  This helped integrate the colors.

This card was also an opportunity to relive my childhood and play Tic-Tac-Toe with the ladies over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges:



Sketch plus Cricut plus embossing gives me three in a row horizontally.  This might even be a two way if you consider that this card could be suitable for a guy.

Now I have two Christmas cards ready for next year.  Thank you for stopping by!  Now why don't you visit Merry Monday, Freshly Made Sketches and Heart 2 Heart for some inspiration and maybe enter them yourself?  I would love to see your work!  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:  
Paper:  Snowhaven, Black, White Daisy, and Cranberry cardstock
Ink:  Black pigment and dye inks, Black and Carmine ShinHan markers
Stamp:  Winter Wishes (retired)
Embellishments:  Bitty Sparkle, red baker's twine from Michael's, black button (retired)
Other:  Snowflake embossing folder by Darice, Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge

10 comments:

  1. I love the way you decorated the inside and outside of your card. Very cute penguins! Happy Stamping! Angela

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  2. This is super cute! Love those penguins. Thanks for joining us at Merry Monday!

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  3. Very cute. What a sparkly butt, lol. Thank you for sharing with us at Heart 2 Heart

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  4. This is so cute!!! I love the cute images and the embossing!!
    Thank you for joining us at FMS!!

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  5. Adorable! Thanks for playing tic-tac-toe with us @ H2H!

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  6. What charming stamps!! I love how you have carried the black and red into the sweet border. Thank you for playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches.

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  7. How adorable!! Love your penguin! Thanks so much for playing along with us at Merry Monday.

    Deanne :)

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  8. This is super cute, I never get enough of that little penguin. Thanks for playing along with H2H!

    Brandi R.
    H2H DT member
    crzy4scrapbooking.blogspot.ca

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  9. This is totally sweet and adorable! Love it! Thanks for joining us at Merry Monday!

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  10. This is too cute! Your little skating penguin in adorable and the pops of red really make this card stand out beautifully! Thanks so much for joining us at Freshly Made Sketches.

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