I Spy some CASual Krafty Die Cuts

I'm in full on Christmas card mode at the minute - no matter what the challenge at the moment I seem to be drawn to Christmas and in particular Christmas trees.  For this card, I've combined 3 challenges - firstly this week's CASual Friday which is to use kraft card  http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/cfc76.html  and combined that with this week's ISpy sketch http://ispysketches.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/issc39-with-maureen-plut.html   and the die cut embelishment challenge at 52CCT  http://52cct.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/october-embellishment-challenge.html

I used a square kraft base card with a darker kraft panel on top which was embossed with a falling snowflake embossing folder.  I coloured the raised flakes with a white gel pen.  The sentiment strip is washi tape.  I then used a hero arts die cut tree in 2 sizes to cut my trees from a variety of materials - cork, wood veneer, spotted kraft paper and more plain kraft which I covered with brown flock and brown glitter.

Embossed Christmas

This week's 52CCT challenge is to use heat or dry embossing on your project http://52cct.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/embellishment-challenge-5.html

I decided to go all Scandinavian with trees as my theme and a red and natural kraft colour theme.

This really was one of the quickest and most simple Christmas cards I've ever made, but I really like the effect so may well make a set of them.  I used a hero arts stamp and emboss set to create the bottom panel (stamped first in rhubarb stalks momento ink).  I used my grand calibur so I could run the car through open and get the embossing just where I wanted it.  The strip with the merry Christmas on it is a gorgeous washi tape I got on ebay from Singapore.  The finishing touch is a painted wooden Christmas tree I got in the John Lewis January sales which just adds a little "pop".

It's very humid here tonight but the rain we should have had about 5 hours ago has finally arrived so hopefully we'll start to cool off a little - let's get the rain over and done with before the extended Jubilee bank holiday weekend - although the chances of breaking the bank holiday rain tradition look pretty slim :(

LIM meets 52cct

The 52nd challenge of LIM is here - next week it's their first birthday - who hoo!  I for one can't remember what I used to do on Saturday mornings before last February.....   This challenge is a sketch - a simple strip on a landscape oblong  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2012/01/week-52-sketch.html   I decided to combine it with the challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown which is to use a minimum of 3 gems on your card.  http://52cct.blogspot.com/2012/01/embellishment-challenge-1.html

I stamped a WM bauble onto teal, embossed it in silver and cut it with the matching nestie.  I added the 3 gems to the centre of the stamp and faked some small ones with glitter below.   I added a strip of snowflake DP and attached the bauble by hand back stitching a cord for it to dangle from and a tiny bit of tape to secure the bottom.  I finished with a teal sentiment in the position to match the LIM sketch.

Can't wait to see what the birthday challenge is ladies :-)