A Cardinal Christmas

This was one of the *must have* sets for me from the Holiday Mini Catalog, yet I put off getting it for so long. I have played around with it, but this is it's first appearance on an actual card. I have a few more sets that still haven't made it onto a card, either. LOL! I decided to play along in today's sketch Challenge over at SCS...not only does it make for a fast card, but I was able to add one more to my stash. I am going to be mailing tomorrow, so I think this may be the last Holiday card of the season. Don't fret, though, I still have teacher's gifts, neighbor gifts, etc. to get together, so I will be posting those as soon as I get them done. The kid's get out of school on Friday and don't go back until the New Year, so I have quite a bit to get done between today and Friday. Wish Me Luck!!!!

I watercolored the cardinal with an aquapainter and ink refills. I usually mat my cardstock before I begin the watercoloring process so that the paper doesn't curl. I try not to use too much water flowing from the aquapainter as well. This helps me getter better results. I *of course* added some stickles to bits of the entire image. To me, sparkly cards say Christmas. It seems like when I was young, everything had sparkles. Yummy! I also used some DSP paper from Stampin' Up! in real red. It is the prints pattern for this year. I think I liked last year's better, but I do like some of these as well, so it is worth having. I sponged all of the edges for a vintage feel, added some gold brads and punched out the sentiment. I then tied it up with a bit of mellow moss taffeta ribbon and called it *done*! yipee!

Stay Tuned for more projects and thanks for fluttering by!