Hello! Every year, over at Creative Fingers Challenge, we say a special thank you to our sponsors. This year, I’m saying a special thank you to Bugaboo Stamps. Not only have they supported the Creative Fingers Challenge, they’ve been an awesome support of my challenge blog as well.
This year, I needed a Christmas card that said thanks to a local business for their amazing service during the year. I was raised in an environment that used to thank their local workers at Christmas. People like the milkman, the regular garbage collectors and the postman always got a little thank you gift at Christmas. But, that was way back when the same person did the same route for every delivery or collection. Sadly, these businesses and services rotate their staff nowadays and that social connection has been lost within the community. I may not be able to thank those men and woman as I did when I was a child but I can still say a special thanks to the local businesses I frequent.
For this card, I used Bugaboo Stamps‘ Penguin Trio Blocks, digitally mounted on one of a digital snowflake paper pack I bought from Etsy. While I was arranging the digital files, I also sampled the colour of the background and added it into the sky areas of each penguin block. Not only did that save me from having to colour that area, it also ensured the colours were consistent across the background regions.
I printed out the completed file and a sentiment onto plain white cardstock. I coloured each penguin quickly with Chameleon Pens and once the basic colouring was complete, I set to work added some glitter and shine to each of the penguins blocks. I added some Judikins Iridescent Sparkle Embossing Powder to the tops of the snowdrifts, heat setting it before moving onto the penguins themselves.
I wanted the penguins to have some shine but not the glittery look of the embossing powder. I decided to add some Kuretake Starry metallic watercolour paint to the white areas of the penguins and their hats and, once dry, I trimmed the panel down to size ready to add to my card, using a stitched edge die.
I created a slimline card base from another sheet of plain white cardstock and die cut a starry border frame from turquoise cardstock, a colour that matched best with the digital snowflake paper. I added some double sided foam tape to the back of the penguin block panel and attached it to the card, adding a few drops of liquid PVA glue to the tape. Not only does this created a better, more permanent bond between the cardstock and the tape, it allows me to slip the panel around until it’s centred without worrying about the tape grabbing the cardstock before I’m ready. I then die cut the sentiment with one of the strip dies from the Your Next Stamp Stitched Sentiment Strips die set. I added it to a small strip of the turquoise cardstock, added more foam tape to the back and glued it beneath the penguin blocks.
To finish off, I decided to add some snowflake die cuts I had left over from previous projects down each side of the penguin blocks and added drops of white Ranger Liquid Pearls to each centre. I also added some tiny drops as snow in the sky background of each block, just to continue the dimensional look a bit more across the rest of the card and with that, I was finished.
Once again, I want to thank Jodie over at Bugaboo Stamps
for her fantastic support of the cardmaking industry as a whole. The entire field really owes her a debt of gratitude for her weekly freebies and all the prizes she shares with all the sponsored challenge blog winners! Thanks so much for spending time with me today, I look forward to next time. 😊
Constantly Carding 