Peace cards ....

... well, it's happened - we have snow!!  Well, we had snow.  It started snowing this morning as I was driving to the garage (and I hate driving in the snow).  I had to take Jonathan's car down for a quick check as one of the tyres was nearly flat.  They checked it and told me to go to the tyre shop.  Fortunately, it wasn't too bad - just a leaky value which was quickly fixed.  It started to snow a bit more heavily on my homeward journey, and carried on for a quite a while once I'd got in.  It stopped and started to rain.  So now, there's no rain or snow, but we do have some horrible wet, slushy stuff (ugh!!) on the roads and pavements.  Hopefully, the council will be out tonight and grit!!!

As it was horrible out - I spent some time in my craft room making some of the outstanding Christmas cards that I need.  The last day for posting 1st class post in the UK is Monday - so I've got a couple more days!

I've made a set of five cards for the December Waltzingmouse Christmas Card challenge - WMSCCC12.  Lynn asked us to make a one layer card - so I did, but it looks like it's got layers!  You do need to be a member of the Forum to take part in the challenge - but it's easy to join in.  Simply go to Claire's blog - here - and click on Forum and follow the instructions.

One of the cards is also for two other challenges.  The One Layer Wednesday - OLW73 challenge, which is being hosted by Susan this week, and Susan wants us to make a card that represents Peace.  The OLW challenge is taking a break and won't be back until mid-January.  It's a very open challenge - which I love!  The other challenge is this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge - PDCC111 where it's a splash of colour - and the ladies have chosen teal! 

I'll start off by sharing the card for all three challenges.

I made a mask using Labels 14 and attached that to my card.  Then I stamped some sheet music (which you can just about see) on to the card and then I added text; both are stamped in pale grey.  To me, two of the most peaceful things I can do is listen to music and read - hence the text and musical background!  The I sponged some colour over the mask allowing it to softly create a colour border.  Once I removed the mask I stamped this wonderful frame in black and heat embossed it with Kaleidoscope powder - so it has a really lovely shimmer.  Finally, using the same colour that I used to make the frame, I inked up the word "Peace" and stamped.  In order to get accurate positioning I used my stamp-a-ma-jig for the frame and sentiment. 

Stamps:  Waltzingsmouse - Text-It, Musical Backgrounds, Holiday Labels 14, Say It Loud - Winter Holiday
Inks:  Memento - London Fog; Versafine - Onyx Black; Stampin' Up! - Tempting Turquoise; Distress - Tumbling Glass
Spellbinders: Labels Fourteen (S4-290) #4
Accessories:  Stamp-a-ma-jig; Kaleidoscope embossing powder, card from stash

Here are the rest of the cards - I kept the same design and simply changed the colours I used to create the inked frame and stamp the sentiment.

Inks:  Distress - Evergreen Bough, Seedless Preserves, Festive Berries, Pine Needles

You can't really see the difference between Pine Needles and Evergreen Bough in these photos - but it's definitely there.  Pine Needles is a much darker green.  And below is a photo of all five cards - I'm really pleased how they turned out.  And now I've only got 15 more cards to make.

It's only 4.30pm and it's so dark!  Still only a few days to the shortest day and then the evenings start to get a bit longer each day!  And Kathryn has broken up for Christmas - she's so pleased and excited.  I'm not sure whether the excitement is Christmas or because Jonathan is home tomorrow!  Yippee!!!!

Anyway, that's all for now.  I'm off to make dinner for us both.  Back tomorrow.