Anything Christmas Goes - Tribute Challenge for Winter Wonderland's Eileen for 17th of February 2017

For the next two weeks at Winter Wonderland, we are hosted by Helen.

As regular followers of our challenge blog will know, our blog owner and coordinator Eileen sadly passed away recently. This challenge is our tribute to her and all the hard work and time she put into running the challenge blog. As it's a special challenge, both teams are joining in.

 And so the theme for this challenge is simply:

Anything Christmas Goes 

....so we want to see all your Christmas projects!

For this challenge, we are sponsored by Little Claire Designs, who are giving 3 digi stamps to the winner

 

Little Claire Designs is based on the Wirral in the north west of England and is owned and run by Steve and Gill. They sell a range of great stamps, digis, outline stickers, ready to use images, papers and other goodies.

You may well have seen Steve at craft shows up and down the country and most recently you will have seen him on Hochanda for Little Claire's debut show. Steve is back on the TV again on Monday 20th of March for two shows! 

 They also host regular craft classes (run by Helen!!) on the Wirral - take a look at the website if you fancy a fun day out with good company and lots of card making.

website: http://www.mylcdesigns.co.uk

blog: http://littleclairesdesigns.blogspot.co.uk

So on to my card. As I have always wanted to have a drink with Eileen and the February theme at Christmas Card Throwdown is "Drinks", I thought I would use a stamp of a polar bear with a mug of something warm from The Greeting Farm from Let It Snow. So I stamped him using Tuxedo Black Memento ink on to X-Press It paper. 

I coloured the background of the square card from Envelope Solutions using Copics:

BG02, B16, B29 and B69.

The snow is texture paste using the Falling Snow stencil from Simon Says Stamp.

The original idea for this background came from Kathy at the Daily Marker during one of her colouring challenges. I know I have used this background before, but I just love it and it is quick and easy! But this time I have used gloss texture paste - Ranger Texture Paste Transparent Gloss.

So hopefully we will see a bit of gloss!

I have coloured the polar bear with the following Copics:

C00, C3 and RV10 for the cheeks and ears.

For the mug, I started with B14, but then it caused a huge blob of ink on the bear's left paw.....so I finished with B16 and B18, then I went over with B12 to lighten it up a little.

The hot chocolate is E23.

The plaid scarf is B41 for the base, then I drew lines of R29 and YG17. I went back over with R29 for more definition.

I have also used black Wink of Stella on his nose and eyes, then clear Wink of Stella on the red of the plaid and middle of the mug. I used green Wink of Stella on the plaid and blue Wink of Stella on the outside of the mug and handle.

I have then fussy cut the polar bear and outlined him with my Memento Dual Marker - unfortunately, I slipped as I was going around the inside of his legs and now he has a scar! :?

For the sentiment, I stamped Let's be Merry from the Let It Snow stamp set with Cottage Ivy Memento ink on to some scrap X-Press It paper, which I then die cut using a decorative die from KaiserCraft. I outlined the sentiment piece with BG02.

I then adhered both the polar bear and sentiment piece with foam squares to add some more dimension.

So here is my finished card - I was able to take the photo outside, as it is during the day!

 

 Unfortunately, you can't see any sparkle from the Wink of Stella, also the glossy texture paste isn't as distinctive as the regular stuff - I will use the regular stuff for snow next time!

I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Christmas Throwdown - CCT#03 - drinks

Creative Inspirations #268 - anything goes

ABC Christmas Challenge - C for creature and D for dimension

Crafty Cardmakers #182 - add some texture
Do-Al(l) Kreatives #2 - winter time
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra Feb 2017 - anything goes as long as it is Christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #321 - anything goes as long as it is Christmas

There is inspiration from both the Snowflakes and Icicles DT over on the Winter Wonderland blog, so please pop over to everyone's blog by clicking on their name. We always appreciate a comment or two! :) You can also find out what other challenges are out there, which could give you some ideas for your card stash.

We all hope you are able to join us in our special challenge. We look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing your gorgeous creations. Please be sure to post a link back to the Winter Wonderland blog in your blog post in order to be eligible for a prize!

Have fun and remember you can enter each challenge up to 3 times. This challenge will end on Thursday the 2nd of March and our next challenge will start the following day.

Please remember to check back at the Winter Wonderland blog to find out the winners of the Spring Fever Challenge.

Thanks for looking!