Monday, November 2, 2015

A Very Pink Season's Greetings

It's been a while since I've had a chance to post a card. Life has gotten in the way...work, visiting relatives, and making time for friends I've not seen in a while. But when I saw this week's Time Out Challenge I knew I had to make time to participate in this one simply because I knew it would force me outside of my typical comfort zone for holiday card making. The challenge is to create a Christmas card with the optional twist to include pink and/or purple. I stopped and thought about it and I have to say that I don't think I've ever made a holiday card with either pink or purple on it so I thought it might be fun to try. I started with some patterned paper from My Mind's Eye. I apologize that I cannot recall the name of the paper but I only bought a single sheet of it years ago and had thrown the strip with the name of it away right after I bought it. But that pretty paper had all of the right colors in it to launch my focal panel. I decided to try my hand at watercoloring. That's something else that's very much outside of my comfort zone. I'm not very good at it and most of my efforts in the past have failed but I was determined to make this work. I started with a piece of Strathmore cold press watercolor paper and I cut it out using a Gina Marie Design stitched line die. I prepped the paper with a powder tool and stamped the adorable stocking image by Hero Arts using some Versafine onyx black ink and then heat embossed it using some American Crafts clear embossing powder. Using some Tim Holtz distress ink in Spun Sugar and did a nice wash of light pink over the entire background and then added some darker pink splatters using my Simply Art watercolor palette. I stamped the stockings again, embossed them, and then watercolored them using my Simply Art watercolors in pink, purple, and green. I fussy cut them out and popped them up off of the focal panel using some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals. I added some frosted lace Stickles over the stockings for some added sparkle and dimension and then added a few sequins from Pretty Pink Posh in the corners. I stamped the greeting from the Simon Says Stamp Be Joyful stamp set and heat embossed it. I cut the paper out and created a banner by creating fish tails on either end. I love how adorably this turned out and I hope you do too!


10 comments:

sandie said...

I am so pleased to read that our challenge inspired you to get crafting again and especially that it pushed you to step outside your comfort zone. And wow did you do an amazing job at that. You water colouring is fabulous. The background stunning and the stocking adorable and so good you added dimension. I love the added sequins. Thank you for leaving us a lovely comment on our main blog, we really appreciate it. Great to see you at Time Out.

Lisa Elton said...

Life does get busy and cut into our crafting from time to time!! Nice to see you getting inky again Celeste, this is darling!! I like the colors and touches of sparkle!

Leigh Penner said...

Oh, this is so pretty! Fabulous card, Celeste!

Nancy Thomas said...

You may have been outside your comfort zone but you did a fabulous job. A beautiful Christmas card.

Bernardine Cuttino said...

Oh My, must have these beauties in my home, so festive and me likes pink a lot.
Hugs
Berni
berni46blogspot.

creationsnz said...

really lovely

sandie said...

Congrats for getting HM at Time out x

Aileen said...

Congrats on getting picked by DTs. Your card is just perfect, love the watercolouring and that Hero Art stamp. Now I have to find it. Wonderful, brilliant.

Celeste Goff said...

Thank you Aileen! I hate that Hero Arts didn't name their stamps in the past but the number on the stamp is K5254. I'm sure you can find it that way.

BożenA said...

Great card in a non-traditional Christmas colors. But this card is so beautiful! Sweet, other than all of them. Great card.
hugs,
BozenA