Two Black and White Cards - And a Lesson Learned

Hello Everyone,

I'm sure most of you know by now that I try to make at least one Christmas card each week and usually enter them for one or both of two challenges: Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Card  Challenge and/or Snoflakes Christmas Card Challenge over at docrafts. Well, what with all the cards needed for the family last week, I've fallen behind ... again! So, after a quick look to see what Hazel's theme was for this week - black & white - I set to, hoping to catch up for Week 32. Out came my boxes of card and paper snippets, and while I was at it decided that I should try to use up some of the embossed pieces I had stashed away - you know, the ones that are the result of enthusiasm when the postie delivers a new folder :)

The first one is roughly based on a card made by Robyn, Injoystampin, seen on YouTube - you can see it here. It's simple and quick to make and I really like the effect of the embossed Phrases folder on vellum. The inside looks like this.

Materials used:

• Black cardstock, 11.5"x4", folded in half to form tent shaped base;
• Piece of white vellum, 5.75"x4", embossed using QuicKutz Phrases folder;
• MS Border Punch;
• Stamp greeting from Let's Get Crafting, Issue 26;
• docrafts Seafoam White embossing powder;
• Snippet of DP, 4"x1.25" from Papermania Mono Capsule Collection;
• White embroidered ribbon, 12",from Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn

A nice enough card and definitely black and white - so what could be wrong? Well, this is where the lesson learned comes in - I read Hazel's post so quickly, didn't remember the theme correctly and she wanted one other colour with the black and white :(  I'm so mad at myself!!!

There was nothing for it but to make another card and here it is. I'm not sure why I chose green ... apart from it being my favourite colour, that is. The snippets were already out ... well, they still are actually ... and there was another piece of embossed card to hand, pearlescent this time - you can just about see the sheen in the photograph.

Materials used:

• Offcut black card 8.5"x7.75", folded to form base;
• Piece of white pearlescent card, 5.75"x4", embossed using QuicKutz Phrases folder;
• Tiny snippet of white Neenah Solar for greeting, stamped with docrafts green ink pad & heat embossed with clear powder;
• Piece of white copy paper for computer generated insert using Bearly Mine Designs, Simply Dots 013 digital paper;
• White cherry blossoms edged with Green ProMarker, centres finished with docrafts green glitter & ivy leaves, Wild Orchid Crafts;
• Anna Griffin Blythe & Dorothy green velvet ribbon, 9";
• Card Candy Vintage Berries

There is a silver lining to all this ... I've caught up with my Christmas cards ... and, even better, I've made a further reduction in my snippet mountain - which means I can also enter these cards for Jules Sunday Snippet challenge too :)

Challenges:

CHNC Challenge #32 - Black, White and One Other Colour
Snoflakes Christmas Card Challenge - Week 31 & 32
Jules Crafty Snippet Challenge - Week 31

All-in-all, not a bad day despite the torrential rains we are experiencing here and a very definite drop in temperature - I had to don a woolly today and the EM put the heating on for a while - in August!!!

I'm off to Craft World in Glasgow tomorrow - going to buy a craft tote in readiness for the trip by train to the craft retreat I'm going to in September.  So, with that in mind, I'd better get to bed soon so that I'll be up early tomorrow, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Happy Crafting