C24C - Tic Tac Toe ....

... Morning! It's the first of the month and that means we have a new challenge for you at Christmas 24 Challenge - C24C#29. For the next two weeks we have a Tic-Tac-Toe grid for you to pick a line and use on your Christmas card. I picked the left hand line down - Die Cuts, Design Paper and Pearls. Here's my card:

Stamps: Uniko - Peace on Earth

Inks: Gina K - Soft Stone; Memento - Grape Jelly

Dies: MFT - Very Merry and Bright

Accessories: White Card; Kaisercraft DP - Christmas Jewel; Pearls

I'm submitting this card to Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - FNF#512 where the theme is Christmas.

This is a quite clean and simple. I found a piece of Christmas design paper which is bold and has lovely foiled snowflakes and used the large word die to cut the greeting. I used the negative space piece to help position the words, removed the paper and left the words bold on a white card. In my stash I found a strip of tiny black pearls exactly the right length and placed them below the word bright. A nice clean, simple card. On the inside, I cut a piece of design paper for the mat layer and on the white panel I stamped a couple of doves in soft grey and added a sentiment in purple.

Using this large die made it very easy to make a second card. I used the negative space left in the design paper on a black card:

Stamps: Uniko - Peace on Earth

Inks: Gina K - Soft Stone; Memento - Grape Jelly

Dies: MFT - Very Merry and Bright

Accessories: White Card; Kaisercraft DP - Christmas Jewel; Pearls; Glitter Paper

I used a piece of pale lilac glitter paper to go behind the design paper as the black card didn't give enough definition to the letters. I trimmed the paper to be slightly smaller than an A2 card. I added lots of tiny dark grey pearls to the centres of the snowflakes. The pearls in the letters are where the snowflake centres would be. On the inside, I used the glitter paper for the mat layer and stamped the same doves and words on the white panel.

This was fun. Using the large word die made it easy to make two cards at once. I really enjoyed seeing all the lovely cute animals cards for our last challenge. I can't wait to see what you make using the Tic-
Tac-Toe grid. Don't forget to visit our Christmas 24 Challenge blog to see more inspiration cards from the rest of the design team.

Before I go, I'd like to wish all my family and friends living in Wales

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

The national flower of Wales is a daffodil and there are some flowering in my garden - spring is on the way. Bye for now - see you again soon.

52CCT - Stash ....

... Morning! I can't quite believe that it's already the last Saturday in May! Fabiola has a stash challenge for us this week at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - 52CCT21-16 - she wants us to use our dies and/or punches. I actually made two cards! Here's the first:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps - Compliments of the Season II
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Poppy Stamps - Mod Snowflake Background
Accessories: Stampin' Up! Card - Basic Black; SU Glimmer Paper - Silver; SU DP - Basic Black; White Lustre Card; SU Punch; Craftwork Cards - Sentiment Label

This is the first time I've used the snowflake background die - it's fabulous. I cut it from silver glimmer paper and used my precision cutting plate (which helps) on the Big Shot. I ran the die through several times to make sure that it cut through all the paper, but I still had a bit in the middle that didn't cut (can you guess where?) I adhered the die cut to a black card and simply added a greeting to the front. On the inside I cut a panel of white card and stamped a greeting, and added a punched snowflake in black design paper.

I'm submitting this card to a couple of challenges - Jingle Belles - JB:16:11 where they don't want to see any blues (done), and Fab 'n' Funky - FNF#306 where they want to see Christmas cards (done).

My next card is very clean, crisp and simple:

Stamps: Waltzingmouse Stamps - Compliments of the Season II
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Poppy Stamps - Celestial Star Border
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Glimmer Paper - Silver; SU DP - Basic Black; SU Punch

I used Jenni's card over at Muse - MUSE#167 as the inspiration for this card. I changed my card to portrait and opted for a monochromatic colour scheme. I die cut the stars from silver glimmer paper and adhered them directly to the card. The sentiment is bold black and contrasts beautifully with the silver stars. On the inside I cut a mat layer of black design paper and, on the white card, stamped a sentiment and punched out a snowflake to reveal the mat paper beneath.

As there are stars on this card, I'm going to submit it to the current challenge at Left of Centre - LOC#131 where, if you're not making a left of centre card, then the team want to see stars.

Do visit our blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the team. That's all for now!