C24C - Merry Christmas ....

.... Good morning!!  Most of you know that I've not been very active making cards over the past year and a half, but at the beginning of January I came across a new Christmas card challenge - Christmas 24 Challenge and saw that they were looking for some new design team members.  Now, I love making Christmas cards so I had to play along.  I left it very late but submitted my card on 29th January and found out yesterday that I've been picked to join the team.  To say that I'm pleased would be an understatement.  I'm thrilled to be joining Jacqueline, Mynn and Sue.

Our Christmas based challenges are on the 1st and 15th of the month, and if you play along with us each time you'll have at least 24 cards made by December.  Our theme for the next couple of weeks is to use:

Dry and/or Heat Embossing

So I was busy yesterday afternoon making a card for today, here it is:

Stamps: Concord & 9th - Snowflakes Turnabout, Mistletoe Messages
Inks: Versamark; SU! - Night of Navy; Delicata - Silvery Shimmer
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU! Card - Night of Navy; Embossing Powder - Ranger -  Silver Super Fine, Cosmic Shimmer - Steel Blue Aurora; Gems

I might not have been making many cards recently, but I have still been buying stamps for my stash.  I decided to use one of my new stamps for this card.  I love the turnabout stamps from Concord & 9th and snowflakes make a simple, elegant card.  I'm submitting this to The Male Room - TMR#128 where the theme is It's snowing.

If you haven't seen how to use turnabout stamps, here's a link to Concord & 9th videos showing how it's done. I set up the stamp in my MISTI and stamped the image using Versamark ink, leaving the card attached to the jig, removed it from the MISTI and added silver embossing powder.  I repositioned the jig into the MISTI and stamped again in Versamark, removed it from the MISTI and added blue embossing powder.  I decided to only stamp the snowflakes twice as I didn't want to risk smudging the powders.  After removing the card from the jig, I heat embossed in the usual fashion.  I finished the front by adding a simple sentiment and some gems in the centre of the snowflakes.  This is still a magical process - I just love watching the powder melt and seeing the images revealed - it's what got me hooked on crafting in the first place.  I cut the panel down to 5" × 3¾" and layered it onto a navy panel and attached it to the card base.  On the inside, I cut a panel of navy card for the mat layer and on the white panel added a fun greeting and some silver snowflakes.

I also took a closeup photo to show off the pretty embossed snowflakes - the blue ones have a lovely shimmer:

It really is so nice to be part of a design team again and even better that it's to make Christmas cards!!  Do visit the Christmas 24 Challenge blog to see more inspiration cards from the rest of the team, and do play along, you have until 14th February.  I look forward to visiting your blogs and seeing your creations.  See you soon.