Two stash cards

My cards for the current Christmas Card Throwdown challenge are really last minute, even for me. I started about 5.30pm Friday evening!

We have a sketch to play with this time.

I was looking in my stash for a background to use, when I found these pieces.

I made these playing with distress oxides and embossing folders. The two at the bottom are in pink, red and green as I made them while the September colour challenge was on, but didn't get round to making them into cards. The two on the left are using coated card, as a friend at a crafting workshop had suggested trying it for a less chalky finish. The two on the right are uncoated.

I trimmed the snowflakes down for 5x7 card bases (the folder size was a match so I basically trimmed back to the embossed area). I then cut ovals from the houses, using a die. I went for the left side, on the basis that I'd be left with usable pieces for other cards - waste not want not!

I edged the ovals and backgrounds with the distress oxides I'd used to make them. (This meant I had ink on my blending mat, so you know I made some amazing mop up pieces for my stash - but as I took four out, and put three back in for this project, that's a net win on clearing the stash!)

I wanted to frame the ovals, so die cut a wreath twice from white uncoated card. I cut this into sections to fit around the coated card oval. I cut an ivy die from the same card, again twice, trimmed a little and used to frame the other oval.

This was quite fiddly - at this point this went from being a quick and easy card to a bit more involved - it was inevitable!

I needed a sentiment for the bottom of the cards, and this involve more faffing about, trying different die cut words and stamps/banners.

In the end, I die cut "Noel" and inked with the distress oxides for the coated card. It didn't stand out enough, so I mounted onto white and fussy cut around with a border.

For the uncoated card, I used a solid stamp. I inked up in two distress oxides to match the background (stormy sky and peacock feathers) and stamped onto white card, then trimmed back to give a white border.

I attached the backgrounds to the card blanks with double sided tape. As they are embossed, and had warped a little as they'd had a lot of water on them when they were made, I wanted something stronger than a tape pen.

I mounted the ovals and sentiments with foam tape.

I'm pretty pleased with the results. The snowflake backgrounds are gorgeous, so atmospheric. I don't remember being that impressed when I made them, maybe I had a different result in mind, but I love them now. The topper colours are a little random, I wouldn't have planned them like that, but it works, serendipitously.

To play along with this sketch challenge, head over to the Christmas Card Throwdown. You have until midnight GMT (7pm EDT in the States) on Friday 17th November to join in.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!