The striped bottom was glued to the black cs and sat on my desk for weeks until I decided what I wanted to do with it. The Paper Players challenge seemed the best way for me to get creative with it. I also had some paint chips sitting around as we had been choosing paint for a bathroom so using a Spellbinders set, I die cut three stars from the various tones of gray chips. These were added to the black piece and on top of these I added some tiny silver sequin stars as well as a few extra around the larger ones. I then used some glossy accents on the larger stars. As well I added 2 silver mirror card strips at the bottom. Using a GKD set I stamped the sentiments heat embossing the larger word in silver and used a sparkle pen on the smaller ones. I set it aside to dry before adding it to the card front. Can you believe I lost it on my desk? I was so frustrated and eventually went to ask hubby for help. He found it stuck to a label sheet which fortunately released it easily.

When rummaging around my basket of paper scraps looking for a specific blue piece I unearthed the black plaid piece and set it aside. I thought it would work for this challenge and this is what I came up with this morning. I first used and EB folder on the kraft card front. Then I found the red scrap piece and used it to back the plaid layer and added them to the card front. Taking more scrap red I added a strip across the entire card. Using an old ornament die (one of the first I ever purchased) I cut a gold back and the black and red filigree piece and put them together. Added a few gems and popped this up onto the red layer. I stamped the sentiment (from Divinity Designs actually 2 put together) and trimmed the kraft into banner ends and popped that up too. Because I was using scraps I didn’t have exactly what I needed for the red layer so I put 2 pieces together leaving me with a small seam. To cover up the seam I added a line of small gems and a couple of larger ones onto the sentiment strip and on the corner of the red piece to balance it all. It all seemed to work better than I expected which is always a bonus to my mind.

Its been a while since I entered into a Global Design challenge, so I decided to try this colour challenge and get going once more with entries. Pink is a somewhat unusual colour for a Christmas card but I went with it anyway as these are the cards I need currently. I dry embossed the pink piece using a folder called Champagne and Holly by Couture Creations. Lately I’m having trouble with my machines and embossing is a challenge but I managed to get most of it with an impression. Then I die cut the word using both the blue and the green and offset them on top of the pink. Did the same with the trees and adhered the lot to a white card front. I added a tiny bit of sparkle to the holly berries, but in retrospect probably shouldn’t have. Using some of the leftover blue I cut several strips to add top and bottom of panel and along the bottom of the main card. Then I die cut the word Christmas from the pink CS and added it to the strip. Dies used are from MFT (small trees) Creative Expressions (larger trees), MFT and Sissix for the words. Had fun and quite like the end result.

For this challenge I decided to use my last inked background piece and some curvy mixed border dies. I think these are Spellbinders but can’t remember for sure. I had the gold frame left over from a previous project and added it to the card front. Then I looked through my PP until I found one I liked as a background. Added this layer and then cut the inked piece to go on top. Using some dies from Concord & 9th that came with a turnabout stamp set I die cut the word letters out of gold CS then glued them in the space between the curved pieces. From the same set I die cut a few leaves from some copper metallic CS as well as a scrap of brown CS and also some circles using 2 sizes of hole punch. I glued the brown and copper leaves together and added them and used the small circles to add a bit of interest and embellishment. Hubby liked this one a lot.

It is always great when I can get one card to work for two challenges. Double D wanted a walk in the woods and my trees and deer fit well for this. And the As You See It, want us to fill in the blanks about what Christmas means to me. Where to start with the explanation is more challenging than making a card. So many things sum up Christmas for me. Family and friends rank way high on my list as do memories. We have no children and no family living close enough to visit for holiday celebrations and I honestly cannot remember our last family Christmas. In a way it has become the same with friends as the people closest to us in spirit live too far away for short visits. Memories become important in this situation. As well, we have a small tradition where, when we traveled a lot, we always made sure to buy one Christmas ornament that represented that holiday so I call our tree a memory tree. Many ornaments have a big memory attached to them and putting up the tree is a trip down memory lane for both of us. Celebrating Christmas in our new home this year is exciting and I’m happy to say that we shall have guests for the holiday.

My card used a leftover border circle that was from a long ago project, some dies from creative Expressions and a LawnFawn stamp set. Sentiment is from a very old Hot of the Press stamp set. I added a few sequin stars and a little sparkle to some of the trees and used a Sakura glaze pen on the deer eyes, nose and tail. He was coloured using Inktense pencils. I love this little deer as he is so cute.

I had various scraps on my desk and I used one piece and some gold CS to begin this card. PP is from a Reminisce paper pack, Gold CS is Recollections, ribbon and sequins from my stash and the stamp used for the tree is from Noel Mouse by GKD. Sentiment is 2 stamps from Divinity Designs. After putting the panel together I added it to the card front and then added the tree with the sentiment behind it. Heat embossed tree and sentiment and used glitter pens to add some colour. Added the ribbon at the bottom and edged it with a bit more gold. I tried to keep this card quite simple. Made a second card with the other scraps. Similar but different.

Santa on this one is from a store bought card from last years collection. Too cute to throw away and he works on this card quite well.

With one challenge calling for Orange and Brown and another for leaves I was able to make one card to fit both challenges. Always enjoy being able to do that. Using Distress Oxides in Carved Pumpkin, Gathered Twigs and Brushed Corduroy, I first brushed and sponged the inks onto some scrap CS. After spritzing it and drying it I then ran it through with a leaf pattern folder which I cut down to the size I needed. Mounted this piece onto a white CS to get a thin border and added all of this to a Warm cocoa card front by GKD. I found one of my leaf dies (again unable to attribute to a particular company) and cut the leaf branch from the left over inked piece. Then I highlighted this with a bit of Inka Gold so it had more depth. On another scrap piece I used a sentiment from ‘Bird Friends, The Cat’s Pajamas’, and cut this to size before using a glitter pen around the edges. I added one extra leaf on the sentiment piece to finish the card.

For this card I really had to think hard on how to get the background piece as I don’t have any large background dies that have a patterned edge. For the penguins, Santa hat and the flourish I used 3 different stamp sets, one by LawnFawn, one Hero Arts and the last by the Cat’s Pajama’s. Sentiment came from the latter set. I wanted the card to look cold and found the PP among my Reminisce stash from last year. I got clever with the background layer as I have a small die set that I believe is from either Spellbinders or Sissix that I purchased in a discount sale. At the time I didn’t know enough to keep the packaging name so cannot attribute some of my items for this reason. Anyway the largest die is a square with the scalloped edging and to make this fit the card front I cut 2 and played a little to get them to fit together seamlessly. It worked like a charm and I am thrilled with the result. With the layered piece on top you would never know that the background is 2 pieces. I also got the look I was going for, as to me this looks cold.

The image panel was done using the flourish stamp and Speckled Egg ink which I heat embossed clear. Then I added the other inks over the top. Spritzed it a little and once dry it was ready to add the penguins and sentiment. The images were coloured using some Sakura pens and InkTense pencils and I used a glitter pen over the sentiment as well. Finally I added a few sparkly snowflake sequins.

I think this is the first time I’ve entered into this particular challenge and this card is another one I needed to fix due to poor stamping. Using my Penny Black Wreath stamp I heat embossed it after stamping. Unfortunately I didn’t realize I hadn’t gotten a good impression so the end result wasn’t great. I left it for a day or two knowing that if I gave myself time I would come up with a way to use it. I had the small poinsettia dies (by Sue Wilson) out along with some scraps of gold and red papers so I cut them as well as a few leaves and placed them as you see on the card. Then I used a sentiment stamp I’ve had for a while but not used before (from Paper Wishes or Hot off the Press I think) and added it by tucking it underneath some of the flowers. I added a small bow made using embroidery thread. After adding this panel to the gold I glued it all to the red card front. The red card stock is the same as the darker red on one of the flowers but it looks much darker in the photo than in R.L. If you had seen the wreath before I added the flowers you would likely have thrown it away, but as most of you know, I hate to throw things away and often find a way to use them. As this challenge is a flower challenge this card seemed perfect to enter.

I had stamped the birch trees a while back and cut them into the panels, but somehow managed to scratch one of the embossed pieces. I set them aside thinking I could fix it but at the time wasn’t in the right frame of mind to try. They sat on my desk until the other day when I had the idea of how to cover up the error. Using a small piece of scrap pp I die cut the birds using a very old die but one I can’t remember who by. I added them over the scratch on the left and used the last one for the panel on the right. Then I die cut the sentiment using some more scrap pp. I glued a single piece of pp behind the panels, added them on top and finished with the sentiment. To my mind it is a good save.