Home for the Holidays

Today is my last full day of a full week's vacation. I have had a good time being home with my husband, doing stuff around the house, stamping, going to a movie or two and taking a bike ride. I know it doesn't sound exciting but it is the longest I have been home without going to work for a very long time. I have enjoyed taking part in all the Splitcoaststampers daily challenges and I especially enjoyed doing today's Featured Stamper challenge.  Anne Ryan is the featured artist and I had fun going through her gallery. Here is Anne's Pink Lady that inspired me.

KC Boards and Beams and Home for the Holidays I had recently purchased Papertrey's Board & Beams and Home for the Holidays but hadn't unwrapped them yet. When I saw Anne's card I knew that I wanted to get the sets out and use them. I used the same house image and stayed sort of close to Anne basic layout but changed the theme of the card. Papertrey created these two sets to work perfectly together. There is some masking here but not necessarily where you may think. The windows and door were stamped over a second time with the holiday image that comes with the accessory set. Using an acrylic block makes it perfectly easy to see where to place the stamp for good placement and not needing to use a stamp-a-ma-jig or mask. The white icy roof line layer is another example of easy and perfect placement although I stamped this near the completion of the card. The trick to building a scene like this is good masking and to remember to stamp things in the proper order for them to show appropriately. I stamped the fence, masked, stamped the two trees, masked and then stamped the house third. I can't tell you how many times I have started in the reverse order of placement and gotten frustrated and having to start over.  Duh!  I used Brilliance Black to stamp all the images and then watercolored with Stampin' Up! Going Gray, Riding Hood Red, Soft Sky, Sage Shadow, Banana, Celery and Artichoke. I sponged the sky with Soft Sky using my cloud template. I loved the retired SU Winterberry designer paper and thought this would be a perfect image to use with the snowflake pattern. I finished off the scene by stamping the roof line with white craft ink and embossing with white embossing powder. I then painted on tiny bits of white craft on each of the four main fence posts and the ground area and embossed again with white embossing powder. I added red stickles to the red ornaments or berries on the wreathes and trees and added a touch of yellow stickles to each window to appear glowing in the evening. Papertrey certainly has a winner with these wonderful sets.

Stamps:  Papertrey-Board & Beams and Home for the Holidays

Paper:  Sage Shadow, Winterberry DP-retired, Watercolor, White

Ink:  Brilliance, Black, SU Going Gray, Riding Hood Red, Soft Sky, Sage Shadow, Banana, Celery and Artichoke, White Craft

Accessories:  Retired SU Cranberry Grosgrain, Stickles, White Embossing Powder, Cuttlebug Snowflake Folder, Brushes, Sponges, Cloud Template

14 thoughts on “Home for the Holidays”

  1. As always Kittie, your cards leave me breathless! I have this set from Papertrey and it hasn’t seen ink as yet. It’s such a beautiful set for Currier & Ives Christmas cards, which yours always remind me of. Thanks for sharing your amazing talent, we all appreciate the beauty of your work.

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  2. Kittie you did a wonderful job on putting this card together. As many others seem to be, I am a huge PTI fan and have both of these sets. This is the set I plan to use for my sister’s Christmas card. They started and retired from a home building business and this card very much reminds me of their last home (except you hired a better landscaper!) Anyway, I must say I love this set and have seen it used many ways, but what you did was extraordinary!

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  3. Kittie, this is absolutely brilliant! You have created the most gorgeous card ever! I think you even topped yourself! I have the Boards & Beams, but haven’t gotten Home for the Holidays yet. Thanks for the great details. Good luck at work tomorrow. I hope all goes well!

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  4. This card is beyond gorgeous! I need a new word to describe it!!
    I love the colors you used, and perfectly, as always! Thanks for the masking hint, and for all the great details. Everything is just perfect on this card, I think you should FRAME it! Absolutely beautiful! 😀

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