Merry Christmas in May?!

Yes, if you're a card maker and want to make your Christmas cards you need to start early. The earlier the better! I've had the urge to make Christmas cards for a few weeks but the demands of other crafting projects made me keep shoving the Christmas card idea to the back burner. I have been following a friends blog Sandy Trefger as she quite frequently makes cards and enters card challenges. I became intrigued and checked out some of them. One in particular caught my attention ABC Christmas Challenge. After quizzing my friend and her graciously giving me some how to's I decided to be brave and jump in. I chose this one as 1) I need to start making cards for Christmas 2) I have two weeks to complete a card 3) I can start right where they are in the challenge (they are on Letter "I") "I" is for Icy Inspiration. 

This card is rather simple but I really like how it turned out. The photo I used for inspiration was branch and snow. I remembered I had a stamp that looked very similar and although I wasn't really trying to duplicate the photo for inspiration I almost did!

I began with a card base using a solid color card stock. It was already cut and scored for use when I was making Christmas cards last year. I embossed a smooth white piece of card stock using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and put through my Big Shot. The embossing folder didn't have a name on it but the design is snowflakes. Once embossed I trimmed it to 4 x 5.  I had some all purpose ink (frost white) that I had purchased from Stampin Up that I covered the embossed paper with giving it a sheen. I stamped the branch, ornament and sentiment using Christmas Bough from Unity.

I used Memento "Cottage Ivy" to stamp the branches. I wasn't very pleased with the color so I went back over the image with my Copic Markers G94 and G99. To give it a more "icy" feel I used Distress Stickles Pine Needles. Unfortunately it doesn't show well in the photo. For the snow I used Distress Stickles Picket Fence. I stamped the sentiment in the box with Memento Lady Bug. I cut out the branch and popped it with foam tape. I stamped the ornament image with Memento Desert Sand and colored the ornament with my Copic Markers YR23, R24, and G03. I then applied Glossy Accents to give it an epoxy look. Once it dried I cut it out and popped it with foam tape as well. As a finishing touch I used some ribbon I had in my stash. Most of the products I use for crafting come from my LSS Cat's Creations Scrapbooks.

Thank you for taking time to look at my very first attempt at a card challenge! It's not too late for you to join in on the fun and create Christmas cards from A to Z, just click on this LINK and jump right in!