
Hello and Happy Monday! I am really making an effort to stamp more and have decided to start participating in various blog challenges throughout the month. I found three that I used to help me design today's card. It's never too soon to get a jump start on holiday cards, am I right?! Read on to see which ones inspired me....

The first blog challenge I used for my card layout is the Once Upon a Time Challenge blog. They choose a children's book cover as inspiration each month and January's challenge #6 is to use The Snowy Day.

The second blog challenge I selected for my card inspiration is the Peace On Earth Christmas Challenge blog. They present a bi-monthly challenge using a picture as inspiration. This Challenge #32 inspiration is Christmas birds.
The last blog challenge I selected to participate in is from The 12 Months of Christmas Link Up blog. This is a monthly challenge and January's Challenge #96 is an Anything Goes one. They offer a twist, but I opted not to use it.

So how do you think I did? I used the book cover for my layout design and in order to incorporate a bird I turned to the Sweet Songbirds bundle. The Very Best Occasions is the only current stamp set that I have with any Christmas sentiments so it worked out perfectly. Wondering how I made my "snow" and tree? I used a piece of plain printer paper and cut it in half with a wavy line. That is what I used as my template with a small blending brush along with several ink pads to create the snow: blushing bride, coastal cabana and highland heather. I then used the straight edge and the other piece with the wavy line to sponge on the soft suede ink for the tree. Lastly, I flipped the straight edge and sponged on mango melody for the other side. I was a huge fan of the sponges that Stampin' Up! used to carry and getting used to using these blending brushes is taking me some time... a light touch is always best and I do dab off first on my grid paper after inking up to remove any excess inks. I always start with the lightest color, and work my way down to the darkest color.


Above are images and links to the products that I used for today's project. Don't forget that now through February 28th you can earn exclusive Sale-a-Bration items with a qualifying $50 or $100 merchandise order. To find out more about these items or to place an online order, please click on any image to hop over to my online Stampin' Up! store (don't forget to use Host Code U22V9GDJ* with your online order at checkout through February 28th).

Here is a close-up of the card front. In order to have the birdie's footsteps through the snow, I used an early espresso stampin' write marker to only ink up the feet and stamped twice before inking in full for her little legs. Her body and wing were stamped with poppy parade ink and cut out using the coordinating Songbird builder punch. I also stamped her beak with mango melody and cut that out with the punch. Lastly, I added her eyes with early espresso ink. The banner was stamped using shaded spruce ink, which matches the card stock mat on the card front. The card base is 8-1/2" x 4-1/4" poppy parade card stock scored in half at 4-1/4" to form a square card. This will fit inside an A2 envelope so you don't have to pay extra postage.

For the inside of the card, I used another sentiment from the Very Best Occasions stamp set and inked it with shaded spruce ink. Since this is a smaller card I decided not to stamp any images inside the card so I would have more room to write.

Here is one more look at my card for the various challenges. I think I achieved all three, what do you think? Be sure to check out any of the blog challenges below in case you want to participate as well!
The Snowy Day January Challenge #6
Christmas Birds Challenge #32
Anything Goes Challenge #96
Thanks for visiting and happy stamping!
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