Christmas Card for my Mum

Well I have finally finished my mum's Christmas card.  I cannot tell you how many hours it has taken with (a) trying out something new ie making a scene with stamps and using my ink dusters and (b) having this tooth infection/horrendous amount of work done on the tooth on Wednesday.  I can safely post this card on my blog as my doesn't look on here!!!

I have used two Artylicious Seasons Greetings CD papers and printed them out onto card so I could use my Tim Holtz distressing tool to really distress the edges.  I then inked the edges of one paper with Shabby Shutters and the other with Pine Needles distress ink pad, working well into the edges to give it some extra colour and dimension.  i love this effect I have learnt in 2010.

Next came building the scene - yikes do I need practice with this as it took me ages!!!  I used my ink dusters and torn paper to build up the illusion of hills.  At the top of the hills I made a forest with my Lavinia tree stamps, stamping some normally and blotting/plotting others to fade them out.  I then used an Elusive Designs image of a reindeer and stamped him and then coloured him in with Promarkers which I found difficult on this card but maybe it's because of the distress ink background underneath.  I then used the top of a row of Lavinia trees to make the edge around the image.  The image is then finished off with a Seasons Greetings peel-off coloured in black as the holly green Promarker wouldn't stay on the bright pink peel-off and I didn't have a Season's Greetings gold peel-off.  Next came the stampboard image - I inked the stampboard with my Shabby Shutters distress ink pad and then used a Kanban image of a partridge highlighting areas of the image with the Stampboard scraper tool.  Around the edge I used my gold Pentouch pen.  The extra additions to the card are a distressed border with ribbon detail, pearls, ribbon, ribbon bow and an insert inside.  My mum's favourite colour is green so I am sure she will like it.  Fingers crossed xxx

This card fits the following challenges:

The Pink Elephant - Winter wonderland
Gingerloft - Distressing
One Stitch at a Time - Surprise us
Stamptacular Sunday - Anything goes Christmas
Simon Says Stamp and Show - A Lord of Tim Holtz Technique
Pear Tree Designs - Christmas
Top Tip Tuesday - Christmas inspired
Creative Card Crew - Anything goes
A Spoon Full of Sugar - Christmas Card
Crafty Creations - Photo inspiration
Crafty Sentiments - Anything goes
Ai Factory - Anything goes
Sew Many Cards - Winter project
Stampin' for the Week-end - Christmas
Crafty Emma - Anything goes
Sweet Stampin' - Celebrations
Totally Gorjuss - Someone special - card for my mum
Drunken Stampers - Christmas card your style
Allsorts - Free and Easy - Anything goes
2 Sisters Challenge - Christmas