Sketch challenge fun!

Way back when, I used to participate in the Sketch Challenge on the Splitcoaststampers website on a regular basis.  Now that I am back in to crafting on a regular basis, I am trying to participate in some of them again!  The Sketch Challenge is a weekly challenge where you try to make your card based on a particular layout.  It is exciting to see all the different cards that are submitted and how different they all look even though they all used the same layout!

I dug out some of my really old clear stamps for this challenge.  They are from a company called My Favorite Things, and I bought them when the company was still quite young.  Now, that company has grown and has a lot more to offer.  These stamps were from one of their Christmas sets.  It was probably their only Christmas set at the time!  I used Close to My Heart papers and Olive ink, and I used Staz-On ink for the tree.  I used Staz-On ink because it is permanent, and I used watercolor pencils to color the tree and a small, wet paintbrush to blend the color.  An unintended effect was creating a sort of feathered texture on the paper where I had gotten it wet repeatedly.  This gave a look similar to actual pine or spruce needles, which was perfect for a Christmas tree!  I used a Close to My Heart wooden designer button and tied it with a small piece of funky green yarn.  I also distressed the edges of all panels with Olive ink, and I roughed up the edge of the small green trim piece with a blade for texture.

Why did I make a Christmas card in July?  Well, if you start making holiday cards here and there throughout the latter half of the year, the task is not quite so overwhelming when November and December come along.