Card Challenge #2 Joan's Gardens

Good Evening Ladies,
Time flew away from me this weekend. But it is Monday and I am back to the week.
I am participating in Joan's Challenge this week. The requirements are
■  Create a Christmas Card
■  Create an embossed background using Selma's Technique
■  Used Striped designer paper
■  Gold emboss your sentiment
You can check out all the details here  http://www.atjoansgardens.com/2011/09/card-challenge-2.html 

Here is my take on the challenge...

 I went in an unconventional way. I don't know what the true name of this La Blance stamp is but he reminds me of Ebnezer Scrooge from The Christmas Carol. With the numbers in the background...well it just gives me that feeling. I stamped him  on La Blanche paper that I cut with a spellbinder die. I colorized him using the Ranger pen nibs with Tim Holtz distressed ink. The background of this was colorized using a make-up sponge and distressed ink in vintage photo. I ran the next layer through the cuttle bug using a sizzix snowflake embossing inked with distressed ink. My stripped paper and the main base paper is from the lost and found christmas pad from my mind's eye. The holly berries and leaves are from a heartfelt creations stamp set. They were stamped onto the La Blanche paper and colorized with the distressed ink. I hand cut them out and used pop dots to attach them. All the supplies above were purchased at Joan's Gardens. I didn't have a Bah humbug stamp so I had to improvise. I took a companion die and cut a smaller version for my sentiment. I used a Ranger bullet point perfect medium pen and wrote the sentiment. I then sprinkled with Ranger gold embossing powder and used my heat gun to raise it. Two colors of distressed ink were applied over the top of the die. I used distressed ink to change my braid trim from white to vintage photo. The coins are foreign coins from my stash.

 Close-up of my sentiment.

side view of my popped up holly berries and leaves.
The holly berry and leaves set is a set I won in one of Joan's challenges. Thank You Joan. This is a wonderful set that I can't wait to use in a more traditional way. 
This card was a blast to make!
Happy Scraps,
Mrs. Swandog