Stripes and Vintage Christmas Card

Afternoon All,

I don't know about where you are, but here in Ayr we are enjoying some sunshine. I've just been sitting out in the garden enjoying a few rays ... can't take too much of the sun but do need to top up my supplies of vitamin D :)

It's lovely to see the plants starting to bloom too - we have some petunias in flower, African marigolds, wallflowers and geraniums, and the newly planted climbers are romping away so I have high hopes for a pretty wall of flowers in the summer.

On to the card ... this is the one that can be seen unfinished in the previous WOYWW post.

It was made in response to Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #71. Hazel has asked for us to include stripes in our projects this week.

I've gone for a vintage look by choosing some gorgeous striped DP from Graphic45 ... the Christmas Emporium collection ... love the muted creams and browns ... and I've teamed it up with a stunning lace/velvet trim from Anna Griffin. You can just about see that there's some script stamped down the left side of the paper.

The greeting stamp on the label was part of a candy win from Jo of Jozart - thanks Jo!  And another thanks goes to my friend Marie-Louise for the intricately cut gold die-cut. Marie-Louise makes stunning braided ribbon embellishments for her cards. I've used the die-cut as a frame for another piece of Graphic45 from the same collection ...  a leftover snippet which conveniently had the greeting on it.

The wrinkled seam binding and the gems add a touch of colour so that the card wouldn't be too brown :)

Materials used for the card:

• A 5½" square card in cream for the base
• Graphic45 Christmas Emporium 8"x8" paper pad - stripe design, topper and label
• Snippets of paper with a script design - sorry, makers name, etc., long forgotten :(
• Die-cut in gold mirri - a gift from M-L and most probably from a Spellbinder die
• Stamps - Stampendous Holiday Messages; Inkylicious Simply Script; Memento Rich Cocoa ink pad
• Lace/velvet ribbon trim - Anna Griffin
• Red and Green seam binding - Ribbon Carousel
• Anita's red gemstones and Meiflower gold cord

The inside and back are just decorated with narrow strips of the DP leftover from the front.

Yes, the entire card was made from stash already squirrelled away in my craft room! I'm ashamed to say the Graphic45 is treated like gold, the royalty of papers ... sad, isn't it? However, I did use up some snippets which merits a visit to Di's playground at: Pixie's Crafty Snippets Challenge - 19 for the second time this week.

This morning the EM has only had me scrabbling up a stepladder to grope around the attic  - hate stepladders and hate attics ... there could be spiders lurking up there in the dark hinterlands of the unexplored ... to get the suitcases down! He's well into planning mode now ... just checking that there was room in the car for all our luggage ... a dress rehearsal so to speak ... the big countdown has begun. To say he is brimming with anticipation would be an understatement ... as Dwight D Eisenhower said, it's all in the planning :))

Okay, enough of that, I'm off to check in with a few more of my WOYWW buddies ... I've a bit of catching up to do.

Take care all, and happy crafting,