Christmas lanterns

Hello, crafting friends!

There's something so warming and welcoming about a lantern isn't there! I think it makes a great festive motif. Today's card came about because of a beautiful sunrise I saw recently that made me gasp as I opened the curtains (but also the Lanterns stamps were out on my desk lol!)

I started, as I often do, with a card panel cut out with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle. I blended pink ink and yellow inks over the top two thirds of the panel and stamped one of the lanterns and the smaller candle from Reverse Confetti's Lanterns stamp set on top. Holding Cleartly Besotted's Snowy Day stencil over the panel, I used a Posca white paint pen to add snow, taking care to avoid my stamping.

I stamped the Christmas bells and foliage from the stamp set on a scrap of white card stock and then coloured all the stamped images using alcohol markers, including the lantern and candle on the card panel. The bells and foliage swag were fussy cut and the bells given some shimmer with a Wink of Stella pen.

Next came a little die cutting: two fir branches from Flora and Fauna's Holiday Foliage die set and the Modern Merry Christmas by Tonic Studios. It was time to assemble the card! I attached the fir branches at the top of the panel, popped the swag up with dimensionals and glued the sentiment below the lantern before attaching the panel to the card front.

CHALLENGES

I'm joining in with Just Add Ink where the challenge is to Just Add S - I've gone for Snow; I'm also linking up with CAS on Friday where the theme is also Snow; and this is my entry for the last Rudolph Day Challenge of the year too - I don't know about anyone else but I'm having a lot of trouble finding daylight hours to take photos in, so I'm a little late this month!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have three ancient white lanterns from Ikea that we display on a window sill at Christmas. We put candles in them and I remember my youngest son decided that he would be in charge of lighting them in the evenings. I thought he'd get fed up with the job but it was obviously something that meant a lot to him and he lights them every year now. We all love our special rituals!

This is my gorgeous daughter checking her phone one year, with the lanterns in the background. Can't wait to see her for the festive season this year!

Sending hugs,