Three challenges in one

A quick and simple card for this week's 52 Christmas Card Throwdown Challenge.

The theme is die and punches.

I've also decided to add an extra angle to my crafting for the next little while. I have so many crafting goodies, yet I probably only use 20% most of the time - there are so many things I've bought but not yet used. So my goal is to use something from my stash that I haven't used before for each piece.

And the third challenge? It's been a busy week with work so I didn't think I'd get to join in with this week's challenge, but at 7.15pm today, after dinner, my husband challenged me to make a card in an hour!

So this is what I did.

I have a new festive scene die, which it'd be rude not to use! I saw it used on a card someone else made for one of the challenges a few weeks ago (I can't remember who now I'm afraid, so can't credit them) then saw it on eBay for a bargain price, so treated myself. So technically I haven't used it before, but it hasn't been in my stash for ages so doesn't really fit the second challenge. Enter the Merry Christmas punch - this I have had for ages and not used, so perfect!

I used a pearlescent navy card, cut to fit an A6 card base. I wanted something small to be manageable in the time! The punch has to go at the top due to its shape, so the die cut goes below. I couldn't decide whether to cut the die out of the navy card, or overlay white - so I tried both! In the version where I cut it out, I then fitted the circle back into the aperture in the navy card.

The white card base then showed through, which worked for the fields but I wanted more interest in the sky. A rummage through my background stash came up with this sheet.

It's copy paper I used when brayering a card earlier on the year, for the stencil challenge I think. The colours will give a nice atmospheric sky.

I chose a section to cut out to fit the top part of the circle, then fitted it behind the die cut, fitted that into the aperture and the navy card on to the base. And then remembered the ribbon, to fill the gap between the two elements - I never remember to put it on before I stick things together, so always have to tease the card apart again.

For the second card, with the die cut from white (Centura Pearl hint of gold), I followed a similar process, cutting a second section of sky from the brayered sheet. This time I did remember the ribbon!

I don't think this works as well, a darker sky and a softer base colour would suit the white better I think.

But there we have it, two cards, made using dies and punches, using a punch from my stash, in under an hour (well, the first one was completed within the hour; I didn't quite get the second done before the 60 minutes was up, by about two minutes - I'll live with that!)