Cardinal Christmas

I make a ton of Christmas cards every year - at least 100 to send to friends and family. But it's been a habit of mine to make special ones for my Mom & Dad, my grandparents and a few people at work. I'd toss this card into that category. It's more detailed than a mass-produced card, clearly special and would more than likely be saved... that's usually my criteria anyway! LOL!

Even with that said, the card was actually a fairly quick one to put together. Trust me!

The key to quick... the Pines and Needles Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms. I was able to stamp a very detailed designer paper with this backgrounder in minutes and can do this multiple times in an assembly line fashion, if I need to make several cards.

The Pines and Needles backgrounder isn't a new one to the CHF catalog, just one that is Perfect for holiday cards - or the ever elusive masculine card! LOL! But, I think the main point of this post today is another backgrounder that is easy to use and versatile.

Another fun detail to this card is the stamped gingham ribbon. This makes it very easy for me to match my project, since I can use any of my inks. The Ribbons set is all on one sheet with 10 different ribbon options. There are two widths of gingham and grosgrain, three rick-rack varieties, and three awareness ribbons. The set was one of the first ones I had to purchase from CHF and know that this will be a long-time favorite.

Here's a close-up of the Cardinal (see a trend with me??? I love this cardinal):

I trimmed around the edges of the leaves and cardinal to expand the image beyond the matte. I think this gives the illusion of this being a part of the background itself. I used linen thread to sew some details to the card. The Pines and Needles background paper is adhered with dimensional tape for added depth.

Thanks for stopping by,

Lisa

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Supplies:

Stamps - All CHF: Cardinal, Pine Needles & Cones Backgrounder, Ribbons (incl. Awareness), Wishing You... (Christmas sentiment)

Paper: Olive, Craft brown, brown and white cardstocks

Ink: Pitchblack Adirondack by Ranger, Chesnut Roan Colorbox Queue Fluid Chalk Ink, Muted red dye ink (for stamped ribbon), Copic Sketch markers (R29-Lipstick red, R59-Cardinal, E27-Africano, E47-Dark Brown, G21-Lime Green, G99-Olive)

Embellishments: Dimensional tape, linen thread and needle, precision paper snips (to trim around main image)