ABC CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE -- H - HO HO HO (SANTA) AND I - INKY -- APRIL 13, 2022

Hello, and welcome back to my blog!  It's the 2nd Wednesday of the month, and that means a new challenge at ABC Christmas!  The letters of the alphabet we are creating for this month are:

H - HO HO HO (Santa)

I - Inky

I used both themes on the 2 cards I created, and here they are:

I created the kraft card first, and I must say that it's the quickest card I have made in a long time!  I was grabbing my bin of Lawn Fawn stamps off the shelf, when I came across this card I had received from a coworker this past Christmas.  These 3 bold "HO's" were absolutely PERFECT!  I found a Spellbinders classic square die that fit, and cut them all out.  They did need a bit of dressing up though, so I grabbed a scrap of kraft cardstock and the appropriate Spellbinders scalloped square die and created 3 matting layers.  After gluing the pieces together, I placed them onto a kraft card base, but it definitely looked too plain.  I rummaged through my embossing folders and found this one.  I *think* it came from Michael's, but since it is not labeled I'm not sure.  I couldn't emboss the actually card base, so I grabbed out another piece of kraft the size of the 4.25 x 5.5" card base, and ran it through my Cuttlebug.  The folder made a very nice impression, but I wanted to enhance it some by adding white pigment ink over the raised areas.  Then I just adhered the 3 HO'S with foam tape, and that card was done!  I never had a plan for it at all, and it was done lickety-split!  Why can't they all be like that?

My second card took a bit longer.  Again, I was looking for something else when I came across this clear treat bag I had saved from Christmas.  I knew I was saving it for a flat shaker, so I thought "Why not?"  At first I thought that I could make it into a slimline since the bag was clearly long enough, but after doing some measuring, I discovered that wasn't going to work.  There is a HUGE "Merry Christmas" that was way too big to fit on a slimline.  So I improvised by using just the part of the bag underneath the words, which left me with a piece big enough to make my shaker a 4.25" square.  You can't tell at all in the photo, thanks to how the sequins are positioned, but the green cardstock was ink blended using Lucky Clover and Cracked Pistachio oxides.  Those 2 make such a pretty blend! 😍  I will definitely do that again sometime!  For my shaker bits, I pulled out some Sparkle Blends from Doodles Paper Playground.  They are:

Minter Is Coming

Merry Mint

Holly Berry

Old St. Nick

and 

Oh Christmas Tree

I emptied some of each out into some containers and used my jewel picker to pick out the pieces from each blend that I wanted in my shaker.  I also grabbed some miscellaneous green sequins and silver stars from my stash to round out the shaker bits.  I try to be more sparing with the Sparkle Blends since they are only made in small batches and don't always last long in Amber's shop!  I closed up my shaker and adhered it to a mat of plain white cardstock.  Then I spent some time trying to decide between 2 papers from the Perfectly Plaid Christmas 6x6 paper pad from Lawn Fawn.  I finally settled on this one, with some help from my closest crafty friends, AKA The Squirrel Squad.  I imagine they probably get tired of me asking for advice all the time!  Everything is adhered flat to the card, and for a bit of fun, I glued the shaker panel down at an angle.  For the sentiment, I die cut the "be jolly" sentiment from Lawn  Fawn's Winter Big Scripty Words lawn cuts 4 times from a scraps of Accent Opaque 100lb. white cardstock.  To get the matching stamp to fit as nicely as possible on the die cut, I placed the die cut into the negative piece inside my MISTI, and stamped it using the Lucky Clover oxide ink.  It's a little bit off, but then again, so am I! 😁

--CHALLENGES--

12 Months of Christmas Link Up #87:  ATG (1/10)

Christmas Craft Creations:  Tartan/Plaid

Crafting Happiness:  ATG

613 Avenue Create: ATG (3/8)

Classic Design #4:  ATG

Addicted to Stamps and More:  Christmas

Thanks again for stopping by today!  Be sure to come over to the ABC Christmas challenge blog and show us your H - HO HO HO and I - Inky creations.  Also, please leave the DT some comment love for their fabulous creations!  Until next time,

💗 Stay Healthy, Take Care, and God Bless! 💗

~ Marie