PDCC #53: Black, White & Burgandy

Wow...as week of firsts! I have lurked at the Play Date Cafe challenges done by my fellow Compendium Challenge artists, and this week this challenge broke through a road block I'd been having on one of my Christmas ideas. So.. Ta Dah!! My first PDCC post! This week's challenge, which starts year two for them, is The Color Splash Challenge, where you use black and white, with just a splash of the chosen color; this week, Burgandy! They have a photo for inspiration, which I included left.

Now, how did this unblocked my block, you ask? I had been messing around with this chicadee stamp from Impression Obsession, coloring with pencils, stamping with different inks, etc., but it was either too messy, or too long/chancy an effect to try to do 15 of them. So, while staring at my stamp..again...Wham! The challenge jumped in my mind..for the holly berries!! I colored the berries with pencils, then gave a dot of Distress Stickles Fired Brick for texture, and thought, not bad..but needed something...a word..and the Hero Arts sayings borders came to mind (my fav!!), done in the Ancient Mahogany DI, which oddly matched the fired brick stickles, and almost done. Needed the bearest smudge of soot and ancient page on the borders, then matted on burgandy paper...not bad.

I'm not really liking the white card it's then mounted to...maybe cream would be better? Any other suggestions? So, thanks for letting me have a play date at the cafe!! I hope I'll be able to play along again.