Holiday Card Challenge and Embellish Magazine

(This is my third post today.  To see my CSS Group Project or my card for YCU, please scroll down!)

Last year I issued myself a challenge- to CASE all of Kristina Werner's Holiday cards. Well, I didn't make it through all of them.  When I saw she started her Holiday Card Series once again, I felt determined to give it another try!  I have oodles of cards to make this Christmas, so I need all the help I can get :)

This first one is inspired by Day 1.  I love the layout and the big sentiment, so I kept those design features in my card:

My CASE of Day 2 includes a wooden tree that I painted with silver acrylic paint.  Don't you love my "palette" in the background? (aka a cheap plastic plate from the drugstore that has a million layers of dried paint on it...)

Here's the result:

I put some strips of subtly patterned paper behind the wood piece, similar to the washi tape tree on Kristina's card.

I'm submitting this card to embellish magazine's paint trends challenge.

I created the green shadow beneath the sentiment by cutting a piece of cardstock the same size as the part that is popped up.  I always see Lenae do this, and it looks cool!