Hello!  The year is passing by quickly, and it’s time to turn a new page on the calendar.  Our 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenges this month start off with a sketch challenge.  This is a nice one that can be kept very simple or be dressed up.  As always, you’re welcome to turn the sketch on its side or manipulate it into a rectangle.  So long as the basic shapes of the sketch are easily recognizable in your card, it’s all good.

I’ve stretched the sketch out into a landscape-oriented rectangle and created a little scene on the focal panel.  I’m still drawn to the cute little birdie stamps, so I’ve turned the part of the sketch that’s drawn as a ribbon with a bow into a tree trunk.  I took the artistic liberty of adding in a tree branch for the birdies to perch upon.  The sky background was made with an “ink smash” technique.  I dripped a few drops of reinker in two shades of pale blue onto glossy cardstock, and then laid another piece of glossy cardstock on top of it to “smash” the ink between them.  I carefully pulled the two cardstock pieces apart and set them aside to dry.  While I was waiting for the ink to dry, I worked on the tree and the birds.  Once I got the scene all assembled, I knew I wanted to use a snowflake-shaped eyelet in the place of the bow on the sketch, but something still seemed to be missing.  So I decided to add some “falling snow” to the scene by dipping a small paintbrush into shimmer paint and flicking it onto the scene (after I’d covered the birds with sticky note masks, because I didn’t want to risk messing them up).  I originally planned to use some small snowflake stamps for the little embellishments drawn on the sketch, but I decided instead to use the musical notes because the size of them worked better.

Before I let you go off to create your own card for this challenge, I want to invite you to consider joining in our 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown design team search!  We’re looking to add a few people to our team.  New members will start their terms in January 2015.  All you need to do to apply is to participate in each of our challenges this month, and to include the note “DT” in your name when you link your cards to the challenge posts.  So what are you waiting for?  Go for it and show us what you can do!  🙂  Be sure to link your card using this week’s sketch by 1:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, November 7.

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Sparrows, Feathered Friends [for Simon Says Stamp] (Lawn Fawn); Weathered (Stampin’Up)
Cardstock: Blue Bayou, Baked Brown Sugar, Glossy White (SU); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Baked Brown Sugar (SU)
Other: markers (Copic); Soft Sky and Baja Breeze reinkers, Frost White shimmer paint (SU); snowflake eyelet (source unknown)