Inspiration: Merry Monday #294 + Just Us Girls #445 (Black + Red + my choice: blue)
I would not necessarily have thought to use the Hay There stamp set for a Christmas card, but Merry Monday's challenge this week was to include a barn on our card. I was racking my brains trying to figure if I had anything remotely close to a barn, which I didn't think I did, but then I thought of the barn in Hay There and even though it's not a Christmas set, I figured I could add snow to it using the Winte Village stamp set. Turned out that the snow in that stamp set is for flat roofs, but while looking through my Lawn Fawn stamps for Christmas embellishments to use on the animals, I spotted a pointy snowdrift in Frosty Fairy Friends (meant for the fairy house). I also found a Santa hat, a gift and a scarf in Baash Humbug, which were the perfect size for the farm animals. Because I had pulled out the Frosty Fairy Friends set, I got the idea to use the Christmas lights image as well. Size-wise, those are some kick-ass big lights in comparison to the barn, but it looked so adorable, I just couldn't leave them off. I colored the lights with bright-colored markers and added a paler halo with a softer color around the lights. It adds such a nice touch to the light detail. Glossy Accents was added to make the bulbs shiny as well.
I knew i wanted to use the blue gingham paper from the Gotta Have Gingham paper pack for the sky, and the Stitched Hillside Backdrop: Portrait die for the ground. There were a lot of trials and errors with this one before I found the combo I liked the best. Initially, I had used Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper from Stampin' Up!, but the shimmer has color in it, so it was a little distracting and the hills were getting lost in there. My Tonic specialty papers were out and I spotted the little polka dots patterns. I die-cut the Hail Storm (blue) first, but it was too much blue with the sky, so I went for Snowdrop Meadow (white) instead. I liked the look, but since I had already die-cut the blue, I figured I could use both to add definition to the two snow-covered hills.
Once the farm was put together, I decided to die-cut a Merry Christmas out of red cardstock, and add a few stitched snowflakes as well. One of the Christmas sets I had pulled out was Christmas Dreams and I got the idea to use the ribbon bow at the top of the card, over the scalloped frame. By the way, when you cut your card base a regular 4-1/4" x 5-1/2", you see the color of the card between the scallops of the frame, so I cut my card base a tad smaller (4" x 5-1/4") to avoid having the white showing. It's a nice trick to keep in mind, depending on the look you are trying to achieve.
Supplies
Stamps: Hay There, Baaah Humbug, Christmas Dreams, Frosty Fairy Friends (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned and Specialty Papers: Gotta Have Gingham (Lawn Fawn); Hail Storm and Snowdrop Meadow (Tonic)
Ink: Tuxedo Black Memento, VersaMark
Dies: Stitched Hillside Backdrop: Portrait, Stitched Snowflakes, Baaah Humbug, Frosty Fairy Friends,
Hay There, Christmas Dreams (Lawn Fawm); bonne fete merci joyeux Noel (Simple à souhait)
Accessories: Glossy Accents (Ranger); Glitter Gloss Aqua Shimmer Brush (Nuvo); Alcohol Markers (Copic);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board, Black Stampin' Emboss Powder (Stampin' Up!)
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