52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown

This is my challenge entry for the 52 (Christmas) Card Throwdown . This is a great way of building a stock pile of christmas cards, thus making the festive season a little less stressfull. I love making christmas cards so this is a handy excuse to continue playing, though it does mean the festive stash cannot be put away until August as it once was.

This weeks theme is 'Christmas Flowers'. The stamp set 'Ivy' from Creative Expressions . The background has been made using Distress Inks spritzed with water and also Enchanted Gold Cosmic Shimmer. The Ivy has been embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Bright Gold and coloured in with Cosmic watercolours. The rose was stamped on white card and gold embossed four times, I then built the flower to give it dimension. Instructions for this can be found on Creative Expressions website.

The sentiment is on the same stamp plate. It was stamped and embossed before being cut out with a Spellbinders die, I left the die in place while I used Distress Ink to colour the cut out so that I got the white border. It was then mounted on foam pads to give it a little lift.

Matting and layering were done to pick out the Distress colours. Maybe not the colours you would expect on a christmas card but I think a challenge is all about leaving your comfort zone and playing.