Santa’s Gifts for FMS193

Now that Fourth of July is behind us, it’s time to focus on Christmas.  *That was a joke*  It’s not that I’m anxious to break the seal on Christmas, but I couldn’t NOT create a fun card with these adorable images from Santa’s Gifts, a new Christmas stamp set in Stampin’ Up!’s 2015-2016 Annual Catalog.  Here’s my card:

And here’s Rita Wright’s sketch for this week’s challenge at Freshly Made Sketches that inspired my card:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders

• Flip it and Stretch it.  I adore Rita’s sketch but decided to flip it around a bit.  I turned this combination of three rectangles on its side and built them along the right side of my card.  Do you  see them over there?  While my finished card doesn’t exactly mirror the sketch (as my projects often times do), my card is definitely inspired by Rita’s sketch.  I would have never finished this project the way I wanted if it weren’t for the inspiration sketch.  I quite like how it turned out.  Thanks, Rita!
• Santa’s Gifts.  I can’t wait to get my hands on Stampin’ Up!’s Convention later this month.  Until then, there are some returning favorites in the Annual Catalog and a handful of new ones.  Santa’s Gifts is new photopolymer set that’s packed with adorable images – a reindeer, a bird, a candy cane, a present, a star, a Christmas tree and Santa (of course).  If you haven’t looked at this set already, now’s a really good time.  I mean, how adorable are these?
  

  Santa’s Gifts stamp set, Stampin’ Up!

• Textured Panels.  I tried and tried to make Merry Moments Designer Series Paper fit into the panels on this card.  After trying multiple patterns, I realized that the bold, crisp patterns in that collection of papers does not work with the sketched images from this set – especially when they are water colored with an Aqua Painters.  The panels I used are cropped from a piece of Crumb Cake and a piece of Real Red card stock.  I stamped candy canes and stars on the panels with the ink that coordinates with the paper.  This adds texture without detracting from the adorable Santa and his Christmas tree.

Stamp Sets:  Santa’s Gifts  Papers:  Real Red, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Watercolor paper, Thick Whisper White  Inks:  Real Red, Smoky Slate, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Mossy MeadowCrushed Curry  Accessories:  Washi Label punch, Aqua Painters, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I hope you’ll pop over to Freshly Made Sketches to see the cards by the design team members and to play along with this week’s challenge.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian