Out of the Box Colors for Holiday Cards

Today's Rubbernecker Stamps Blogger Challenge is being hosted by Shelly and it is a great one.  So many of us feel there are only a hand full of colors to use for our holiday cards. We usually use some shade of red and green, white, gold and silver. Shelly's challenge for us is to make a holiday card using non traditional colors. Come play along with us and post a link to your blog or gallery upload over on the Rubbernecker blog. You may also enjoy checking out all of our design team blog posts to see what they came up with for the challenge.

I got to combine today's blogger challenge with the SCS Tuesday Color Challenge to use Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss, and Basic Gray. I don't think of aqua or gray as being colors I would choose to use on a holiday card so I was inspired to see what I could come up with using these colors for Shelly's challenge.

Just this week I received the North Pole images from Rubbernecker Dave. They are so adorable and can really be used for any winter card occasion and not just for holidays.  The name of this adorable little girl image is Eye Spy.  I thought she would be so cute looking for something out of a body of water or looking down over a valley. It was much easier to come up with the edge of the frozen lake and to let you imagine what she was looking at or for.

I stamped the girl image, masked her and stamped the trees all around her. The little trees in the Kittie Kits The Moose is Loose are so perfect to use for small scenes on card fronts.  I do not mask these trees when stamping to create a forest of trees.  I just start stamping the trees with Kiwi Kiss across the scene and the ink of one tree being stamped and layered over the edge of another just adds to the appearance of one being in front of or behind one another.  I hope that sentence made sense. I painted the girl image with Baja Breeze and Basic Gray and watercolored the small patch of lake with Basic Gray. I sponged Barely Banana along the tree tops and then sponged the sky in with Baja Breeze using an Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool.  I applied Liquid Applique to the ground area and the fluffy hat trim using an old stiff brush that allows the liquid to be spread out more evenly to create a look of natural snow and to help remove the dreaded blobs when applied too thick. I put white embossing powder over the heated LA and heated again to create a perfectly white snow and hat fur trim.  I used a small brush and dotted on white craft ink for falling snow and embossed with white embossing powder. I applied Diamond Glaze to the lake for the look of ice but it doesn't show well on the photo.  I cut a frame using an oval Nestibilites die, mounted with mounting tape and attached a multi looped bow for a soft embellishment.

I am putting a picture of the Inkssentials Ink Blending Tool so you can see exactly what I am referring to in my post.  If you haven't tried this tool I would highly recommend that you do. This is one of the most beneficial tools in my work room and I have several that I keep right in front of me for easy access. I have one each for brown, light and dark green, and light and dark blue.  The foam on the tool lasts for a very long time and blends better than any other sponge I have ever used.  When it wears out I simple pull it off the Velcro holding it in place and replace it with a new one.

Stamps:  Rubbernecker North Pole Collection-Eye Spy, Kittie Kits The Moose is Loose, Easter Collection-Dot Square

Paper:  Arches Watercolor, Baja, Kiwi

Ink:  Black and White Craft, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze, Barely Banana, Basic Gray, Blush Blossom, Pretty in Pink

Accessories:  Liquid Applique, Glaze Pen, White Embossing Powder, Handmade Cloud Template, Brushes, Ink Blending Tool, Twill, Nestibilities, Diamond Glaze