December Card Chain Challenge Reveal Day

Hello everyone, I played in the Card Chain Challenge again in December, couldn't resist the challenge we were given, and today is reveal day!

For December there were no options but instead we had to follow all of the challenges  which were:

NBUS

(new but unused stuff) 
something from your stash that is unused
It doesn't have to be new, old unused stuff is OK too

 

AND

 

your favourite 3 colours

 

AND

 

an animal OR a flower OR a fruit.

This is what I came up with following the challenges above. My card went to Joanne in CT and I was happy to hear that she liked it. The card below is actually are replica of the "original" as silly me forgot to take a picture before mailing it!! But luckily I realized what I had done the very next day when I still had most items out on my desk and the card was fresh in my mind so the only difference would be where the splashed might have been.

I knew exactly which colors to use: this exact blue and this exact pink. My third favorite color is black, I didn't use too much of it on the card, only the sentiment and black brad. Then I knew I'd have some new and never before used stamps as I had purchased several stamps in the last few months that I hadn't had a chance yet to ink up and since it was during Christmas time I selected the beautiful Poinsettia stamp set from Tracy Evans Boutique Designs.

I masked the edges with washi tape then used Blueprint Sketch Distress ink and some splatter with a wet paintbrush for that fun reaction. Next I used part of the Christmas Story background stamp by Penny Black at the bottom portion of the card. The flower was stamped, heat embossed and colored using Picked Raspberry ink and clear embossing powder. There are 2 Poinsettia stamps in the set, the large one (which I heat embossed twice and then a smaller one which I heat embossed once, to cut out for some layers. I used a black brad to hold them together. Under the flower I placed some die cut pine branches made with a Penny Black die (Ornamental Branch). I used navy cardstock for the card base, navy is also a favorite color of mine.

Finally I added the flower with glue dots, stamped the sentiment from the Penny Black set Seasons Gifts in Versafine Onyx ink and then added the sequins for some shine and mainly I wanted to bring a little bit of pink up to the top portion of the card.

I received a real treat from Wendy in Ireland as she sent both of these adorable shaker cards. Thank you so much, Wendy, I absolutely love them!!

The Card Chain Challenge is open to any cardmaker anywhere in the world willing to snail mail a handmade creation and you can still sign up for the January challenge. It's such a great way to send and receive some Happy Mail!