Happy First Birthday Christmas Crafting!

This month we are celebrating our first birthday over at Christmas Crafting-where has the time gone! Thanks to all of you who have taken part in the last 12 months and we hope we can count on you for your continued support. As part of our celebrations we have decided to have a blog hop around our very talented Design Team! We have four prizes up for grabs so definitely worth taking part! If you have arrived here from Debbie's blog then you are hopping in the right direction. If not then please return to the Christmas Crafting blog to start again.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these fabulous prizes is to visit each blog in order, leaving a comment as you go, and then returning to the Christmas Crafting Challenge blog and leaving a final comment letting us know what you love about Christmas. On 1st August we will randomly draw four comments to win the prizes.

To continue with the hop, you now need to visit Darcy's blog.

Good luck and thanks for joining us at Christmas Crafting this month.

Exciting isn't it!  The cool colors and frosty theme I have used in my card this month seemed very fitting considering how cold it is here in South Australia!  The gorgeous little fairy is by Mo Manning, the papers are by Kaisercraft and the image has been colored with a combination of Lyra and Prismacolor pencils on Kraft card and it's been put together using a "Joy" fold technique I found on Split Coast Stampers.

My apologies to Arline and all for being a few hours late with my post, hubby went walkabout with the camera and I was hoping I could just scoot in under the deadline but I hope it was worth the wait!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Anything Goes 
Totally Gorjuss - Sweet and Simple
Totally Papercrafts Friday Challenge - Can You Digi It?
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - Fancy Folds
The Kraft Journal - Anything Goes

Winter Fairy Christmas Card

Technique:  Papercraft

Materials:
cardstock
Distress Ink:
* Victorian Velvet
* Bundled Sage
* Vintage Photo
* Aged Mahogany
Basic Grey Digital Papers:
*DSH-621 Yule Log
*DSH-630 Tree Skirt
watercolour paper
Wee Stamps Digi Winter Fairy
paper doily
Sparkly Fluff
pink glitter glue
various embellishments

Tools:
paper cutting/scoring tool
flower paper punch
holly punch
printer

I love working with Sylvia Zet's images, so sweet!  She is printed on water colour paper and painted with distress inks.  She has a touch of pearl pink paint on the centre part of the wings topped with a light coat of crackle medium.

The little flowers were made with two sizes of a flower punch cut from water colour paper, I love the texture this paper has, the edges are brushed with distress inks, with a wee little pearl for the centre.

Challenges:

Basic Grey - Sketch
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas in July
Crafty Catz - Christmas in July
Winter Wonderland - Fairies or Angels
Cuddly Buddly - Petals and Pearls

Pretty in Pink Winter Wonderland Challenge

Technique:  Papercraft

Materials:
cardstock
designer paper
Distress Ink:
* Victorian Velvet
* Bundled Sage
* Vintage Photo
* Aged Mahogany
watercolour paper
Wee Stamps Digi Winter Fairy
Sparkly Fluff
pink glitter glue
various embellishments

Tools:
paper cutting/scoring tool
Fiskars Border Punch
printer

The challenge over at Winter Wonderland this week is Pretty in Pink  As my range of copics is still very limited to traditional Christmas reds and greens, that meant using a water colour palette with my distress inks and choosing a dusty pink, so I wanted a project that was a little vintage, but not the grungy type of vintage that is so popular, I wanted a soft, feminine feel.

I found the idea for the 'book card' here.  The photos are clear and easy to follow, and the measurements in metric, which is a bonus for me!  All the edges on my card are sponged with Victorian Velvet, and I used a Fiskars border punch for the edges.  If you haven't made one of these before they come together quickly and easily and are perfect for giving small gifts inside.

I purchased the Wee Stamps Winter Fairy digi from Cuddly Buddly because it allows me to download instantly, rather than waiting for someone to email me the image.  She is printed with a laser printer onto water colour paper and then painted using the palette listed above.

Her wings are highlighted with glitter glue, and her fur trim is done with Sparkly Fluff.

The sentiment I used for inside the book is from here.  Tonnes of fabulous word art freebies on the site, so spend some time checking it out.

The designer paper I used was a digital freebie that you can download here.  Another site with a large selection of free digital papers to download, worth the visit.

I had a great time putting this card together, learning some new techniques and a new card style.