Christmas cards in January!

Hi Folks!  Well I am the first to complain about early christmas decorations going up in towns...the years pass by quick enough without rushing the end of the year in!  But I have to admit that because of ill health I did get a bit behind in my orders for christmas cards.  So my first resolution for the new year....yes you have guessed it....make my cards earlier.  To give me some incentive to keep that resolution I am going to try to enter at least two Christmas Cards a month into crafty hazelnuts christmas challenge 2  This is a Blog that is just for Christmas Cards and Christmas Projects.  I think it is a brilliant idea!

So for my first entry this month I have the following offering:

I began by masking of the edges of my Clarity Coated Card.  I peeled the masking tape back from the corner and using Memento Paris Dusk Ink, I stamped my Stag in the corner and then I stamped and cut out a mask for the reindeer (I did it this way round so that the ink on the Clarity Coated Card had time to dry). I covered the Body of the Reindeer and then put my masking tape back in place.

I stamped the Spruce Trees at the left of the picture then once again made a mask for them while the ink was drying, covered them up and went to work on the treeline at the top.  All I have done here is to stamp the Forest Ridge along the top.  I then took my small Lone Spruce  and stamped just the top part of the stamp (blotting it first onto copy paper) to give the impression of more trees in the distance.  

I then added a moon mask to the treeline.  Using Memento Summer Sky Ink and Ink Duster, I shaded along the tops of the trees.  I then used the Paris Dusk and a makeup sponge to do a bit more shading in the sky. I drew in two birds in the distance to give the picture a bit more perspective.

I stamped two of the reindeers from the Winter Wonderland Set and then I stamped in the tips of my small Fern and some leaves from the set that goes with the Naked trees of Africa.  Using torn copy paper and makeup sponge I shaded under the tree ridge, the deer, and the plants.

I then removed all the masks, polished up the image with tissue paper and mounted the whole picture onto white card.

Here is  pic of all the items used.  All the stamps used are Clarity Stamps (my favourite) and can be found by following the links.

Happy Crafting!

So as I said at the beginning of this post, I am entering it into the following challenges:

http://craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2.blogspot.co.uk/