SugarPea Designs Mix it Up Challenge #61 {Merry Christmas}

It's that time again; time to play along with the current SugarPea Designs Mix it Up Challenge! This one is so much fun; I had a ball creating my card for it!

I just HAD to use both sides of the challenge this time; isn't it fabulous? I was inspired by the dots on the gold ornament, the color combination, the bit of cloth in the bottom left corner and the details in the ornaments.

The first thing I did for today's design was to create the green portion of the background. I just love the new Buffalo Check Background stamp and I wanted to incorporate the woven texture of the piece of cloth in the inspiration photo. I die cut the Postage Stamp SugarCut twice and glued them together for a nice, sturdy piece. I also die cut a slightly smaller piece of the same green paper to do the actual stamping. I didn't want the pattern to overlap onto the "postage stamp" edge because I felt it would be too busy and distracting.

I added it using foam squares for an extra bit of dimension, which I just love! The green piece was layered onto a piece of Navy cardstock that had been die cut using the Card Front Element Builder. I love the detail it adds to my designs and in this case, reminded me of the details on the ornaments.

At this point, I added the white paint splatter using a fine tip brush for a light dusting. I love how it turned out! Once that was done, I was able to add the heat embossed sentiment from the Everyday Sentiment stamp set that was die cut using the Sentiment Strips SugarCuts.

I added the Merry SugarCut just above the embossed sentiment. I stamped the bear and all of his accessories using the Hey Winter stamp set and then colored them using an assortment of alcohol markers. Once that was done, I die cut everything using the Hey Winter SugarCuts. I added the polka dots on the sweater and hat and all of the other white details on the stamped images using a white gel pen. I really wanted to incorporate the dots from the ornaments.

At this point, I was able to add all of the stamped images here and there, but keeping things towards the bottom left corner as per the sketch. I added some Liquid Applique to the bear's hat to give it that puffy look on the pom pomp pieces.

I made a similar card that you can see HERE, but changing up the colors and some of the other design elements really makes a difference! I love both of them and I can't wait to send them out this holiday season! Thanks for fluttering by!