New Challenge at the Divas

Hello blogworld,

Posting two days running, eh!  How good am I!  I promise I won't be turning it into a habit - I don't think anyone could stand that level of waffling!!!

So the reason for the post is that it's a new challenge over at Divas by Design - we are up to number 17 now and the theme is Merry Christmas.  Our two wonderful sponsors this time are:

 http://stitchybearstamps.com/shop/

and

http://deliciousdoodles.blogspot.com/

I'm sure I don't need to encourage anyone to be making Christmas cards.  I would imagine nearly everyone is snowed under with them!  Also the challenge runs for 4 weeks this time - plenty of time to nip over and join in.

I know my team mates have created some wonderful creations to inspire you and here is my contribution:

As you can see I went for a simple design - but that is because I was making batches of cards to send out.  I did this one and another two designs.  This one I thought was the more elegant of them!

So I used:

Inkadinkado Dot Flourishes set - I picked one of the larger flourishes stamped it on its side and then overstamped a bauble image (I've no idea whose it is - I've had it for years!).  Coloured it in with my Promarkers added a Wild Rose Studio sentiment, a couple of gems and - hey presto - 15 cards later I was done!

It's been very hectic over at the Divas this challenge - Anything Goes is obviously a very popular theme, we've had hundreds of entries!  I've really enjoyed wandering around all your blogs and admiring your work.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Sarah

A challenge, or two,:

Creative Card Crew - Tis the season

Dream Valley Challenges - Challenge 22 - Christmas

How my cards evolve

I am really struck by the clean and simple cards on the Less Is More blog challenge and decided to do a card along with their theme for this week.  Once I saw what their theme is though, I almost chickened!  It's masculine and I really don't do masculine cards.  I struggle so hard with them, it is really about the only time I don't enjoy my hobby.

Anyway, I thought stop being a wimp and do it - I don't have to enter the challenge do I.  So I had a couple of thoughts about what I would do, and settled on this one.  I'm going to do this in classic awards style and do the card I like best first and the ones that I thought weren't so good last!

And the winner is:

And the winner is!

Although I'm not entirely happy with the placing of the embossed circle on the card, I like the overall idea.  I used the punched out bit from one of my first attempts as the 3d bird as I'd decided I like the colour combo. 

My first attempt wasn't too bad, but then I realised that you can't emboss a nestie once you've put the 3d part of the card on!  So this was embossed by hand with the nestie - not a success!

3rd place goes to: my first attempt

Next time I embossed the card blank first, then stamped, then layered, then did the greeting.  Again not too bad, but I still thought not too sure.

2nd place goes to: my 2nd attempt

I was trying to place the brown bird somewhere on the above card, and it just wasn't working.  I had a lightbulb moment, do it again with a green branch and brown bird.  New card blank, embossed, stamped, 3d bird ,changed the greeting and hey presto - my winning card.

I am so glad I'm joining in with the Less is More challenge (even if it is only on my own blog), it's really making me challenge what I do on my cards, and isn't that the point of a challenge?

I will be back soon with more cards in a style I'm more comfortable with.  Am off to do the dreaded housework, then play cards!

Huge congrats if you've managed to get to the end of this mammoth post - next time will be shorter I promise!

Sarah