Happy (?) Holidays

I think I may have told you that I have been thinking about my Christmas cards already.  It seems that if I do not begin early enough they do not get finished in time.  I grew up in a home that loved Christmas.  My mother would sing carols as she did housework, decorated, and cooked.  The love she had for the holiday carried over to me.  I love the decorations and believe me we put up quite a few.  I had never really known anyone who did not embrace the happy side of Christmas until a few years ago.  My husband works with someone who's favorite phrase of the season is Bah Humbug.  Yes they quote Scrooge.  I found a pillow for him with that phrase on it and gave it to him as a gift.  So I thought it would be fun to make a card for him this year that reflects his joy (or lack there of).  So let me show you what I came up with.

I first saw the Scrooge character made out of punch art from a former Stampin' Up! demonstrator named Carrie Gaskin.  From her tutorial, I learned to make him.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  We begin as always with the base card which is made using Always Artichoke card stock and cut at 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", scored at 4 1/4".  I pulled out a background stamp I have of holly leaves from a retired stamp set called Background Basics and stamped it all over the front of the card using VersaMark ink.  I just wanted a watermark effect.  

The only layers added on this one were for Scrooge to be on.  I started with a Basic Black piece cut at 3 1/8" x 4 5/8".  Next I took a piece of Cherry Cobbler and cut it to be 3" x 4 1/2".  I ran this piece through the big shot using the Snow Burst impression folder.  Once it was embossed, I attached it to the black using runner adhesive and then attached the black to the artichoke using the same runner adhesive.  I added a drop of Stickles glitter glue to the center of each snowflake and let this dry completely before adding Scrooge on top.

For the wording of this one I decided to cut out the letters with my big shot.  I used the retired Billboard decorative strip die and Silver Glimmer card stock.  I wanted to be sure the letters would stand out but I also wanted them shiny and sparkly.  The berries in between the words were punched out with a 1/4" circle punch from the Red Glimmer card stock.  I like the look of the words and am not ready to move on to the star of the card.

Carrie use to have a blog and I think you might be able to find it but just in case, I will tell you how I made Mr. Scrooge.  The colors of card stock I used were Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Basic Gray, Always Artichoke, and the retired Blushing Bride. All pieces of Scrooge are adhered together using a liquid glue.   His hat was made using the 1 3/8" square punch.  I cut a piece off of this to shape it like a rectangle.  I did not measure what I took off so just trim until your happy.  I added a strip of Crumb Cake for the hat band.  I glued it to the bottom of the hat top and trimmed the sides off to be equal to the hat.  The brim of the hat is the retired small oval punch.  For the face, I used the large oval and a 1/4" circle for the nose.  The scarf is a piece punch using the large oval punch.  I offset the punch from a large oval hole and punched twice to make the two pieces.  His body is the large tag punch and the arms are from the word window punch.  For the hair, I used a retired die for my big shot called Leaves #2.  I did use a small dimensional to attach the nose to the face.  I liked the raised look.  I also added 2 silver brads to the body representing the buttons of his coat.  Once he was all put together, I attached him to the card using dimensionals and added Crystal Effects to the hat band and the scarf.

We have a tradition in our home of watching the movie A Christmas Carol every year.  We have multiple versions of the movie ranging from the 1930's to the most resent Disney one.  I think we even have a Sesame Street one too.  We try to watch them all every year but sometime we just run out of time.  Of course with this being my favorite holiday, I have lots of other movies to watch too.  

I hope you enjoyed Mr. Scrooge.  In the end he is not really a bad guy at all.  He just needed a little understanding.  I will return tomorrow with another card for you to see.  Until then, thanks for dropping by today.