I Heard the Bells

I've been in communities around Christmas time that celebrate the Christmas season by ringing a bell or bells in various towers throughout the city. I love to hear the bells ring in song, especially when they play familiar Christmas carols. My card design was inspired by these bell towers and various Christmas/Bell challenges.

To create my bell and tower, I started by dry embossing a brick pattern onto  a piece of red cardstock. I added highlight and detail with colored pencils and markers. Next I cut a window out of the embossed cardstock and added a hand cut bell, again using a colored pencil to add detail. Around the window frame I added punched boughs and pearls.I created a roof from strips of black cardstock. I made a vertical cuts every few centimeters along the strip to create shingles. I layered the strips onto a triangle "roof" shape and created a lower roof with more strips of black cardstock. Using ink and a sponge, I created a sky background then adhered the building to it.  The final touch was to create a weather vane for the top of the tower. The hardest part was cutting those teeny, tiny N,S,E, W letters.

I'm submitting this card for several Chirstmas/Bell themed challenges:

Winter Wonderland's BELL Challenge

Jingle Belles' BELL challenge

 Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge "Anything Goes" challenge 

& 

Merry Monday "Anything Goes: Christmas in July" 

challenge at Always Playing with Paper

Supplies: Cardbase: Recollections, Cardstock: Recollections, Darice Brick Embossing Folder, Crayola Colored Pencils, Martha Stewart Bough Punch, Queen & Co Pearls, Studio G Ink, MS Word, Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive, Scotch ATG