CAS Christmas - Woodland Critters

Hi everyone.  I am so pleased to have been asked to be a Guest Designer over at CAS Christmas after being the winner of last month's challenge, and the theme this time is Woodland Critters.  

I have used a mix of a Card-io set of stamps called Oriental Blossoms, using just the twiggy branch and a small leaf, and then some silhouette stamps from Crafter's Companion called Festive Foliage from which I think I may have used the holly in the past, but not the berries or pine cones, so these are getting their first outing, and I think the twiggy branch and leaf have not been inked before either..both sets were bought a long time ago so great to get some use  at last.  The fox and bird came from two different magazine stamp sets from Highlight Crafts Two Red Robins Box Kit 4 which had the fox, and Creative Stamping No. 129 had the little bird, and both sets have lots of other lovely Winter/Christmas images, and neither set has been used very much so I must endeavour to use some of these for festive cards this year, and the two I used had definitely not seen ink before...tut tut!

I cut a piece of white card to fit a 6" square card base and then decided how large it needed to be in order to stay CAS and for the little fox to fit inside it.  I made small pencil marks where the perimeter of the circle would be in each direction and then started at one side and continued round to aim for the marks to keep it reasonably circular which luckily worked OK.  I did add one or two more branches where I thought they were needed, but didn't do any second or third generation stamping which if I had kept it plainer I probably would have done to fill it out more.  I then added the holly leaves at intervals with the berries over the top..perhaps the bunch of berries was a bit large but I didn't have a lot of choice and they do make a statement.  I then added the pine cones, and in two other gaps I added a couple of small leaves.  I used Distress Inks except for the red which was an Adirondack ink pad in Cranberry which I thought would be darker and therefore have enough ink coverage to push the holly and twiggy branch into the background, although close up you can still see both beneath.  The pine cones being brown stand out fine, as do the little leaves.  I was very happy with the result as I don't think I have attemped this sort of wreath before.  I meant to keep a note but I think the Distress Inks were Brushed Corduroy and Walnut Stain, and the leaves were a combination of Twisted Citron and Pine Needles over the top

The next step was to add the sky and snow slope within the wreath and I kept it simple using one of a set of stencils from Lavinia and using Tumbled Glass DI brushed very lightly.

I then found a small offcut of white card and stamped the fox coloured with my Lyra Pencils and then cut it out, and similarly with the very small bird.  I did also use my pencils to add a bit more definition to the the holly leaves and berries and the pine cones, and I added a white Posca pen highlight on each of the berries.

Finally I added the sentiment using a mix of Versafine Satin Red and Crimson Red inks.  The Satin Red was a bit too bright and the Crimson a bit dark so this just made it about right to match with the red of the berries, and after cutting the piece of card down slightly as the wreath wasn't totally central and adding this to the card base, I added the fox and little robin using Pinflair Glue Gel to give them a little dimension.

I hope you will visit CAS Christmas and see what the Design Team have made to inspire you, and hopefully join in the challenge which is open until the end of the month so lots of time to take part.

Thanks for visiting me here today and I'll see you again soon.

I am entering the following challenges:

Merry Little Christmas Challenge - No. 70 Anything Goes.

Peace on Earth Challenge - No. 118 Anything Goes Christmas.

NBUS Challenge - No. 90 Where we use our Never Before Used Schtuff.