Time for Christmas Cards

For some people late August means the start of a new school year.  For me it is time to get serious about making Christmas cards.  In January I resolved to play a Christmas themed challenge each week to get a head start, but as with many resolutions, let's just say I got side tracked.  Now to recommit...  The ladies over at Jingle Belles Rock (got to love a blog with a name like that) are playing Tree Skirt Tic-Tac-Toe, a Christmas version of Beach Blanket Bingo:

Now if you have followed my blog through a Christmas season, you will know that I love sparkles and snowflakes, so it was a no brainer to play the center vertical column of Bling, Die Cuts, and Snow which I combined with this Freshly Made Sketch:

It worked out to being a double play with the diagonal of Glitter, Die Cuts and Stamping.  I started by cutting a snowflake using Close to My Heart's Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge and then stamping and clear embossing it with a stamp from the retired Frosted Cardmaking Workshop.  Next I used a sponge to rub on some Crystal Blue and Whisper inks to expose the stamped image and then some metallic Silver by Color Box to guild the edges.  While I had my stamps out I stamped a sentiment from Holiday Tags and embossed it with Ranger Silver Super Fine embossing powder which is available from Close to My Heart.  I love how smoothly it melts.  I ran the background panel through my Cuddlebug with using an embossing folder from Darice and put the card together, popping up the snowflake up with foam tape.  Finally it was time to bling up my card with some Tan Sparkles on the snowflake and Silver Stickles in the background.

I made two other versions of this but like the one above best.  Which one do you like best?

Thank you for stopping by!  Now head on over to see some other beautiful cards at Jingle Belles Rock and Freshly Made Sketches and maybe be inspired to enter yourself.  You have until tomorrow, Monday, at 12:00 PST to enter the Freshly Made Sketches challenge and September 9 for the Jingle Belles Rock challenge.  Until next time, Hansi

Materials used, all Close to My Heart unless otherwise noted:

Paper:  Frosted (retired), Frosted Gray (retired), Whisper, Champagne, and Colonial White cardstock

Ink:  Crystal Blue, Whisper and Versamark

Stamps:  Frosted Cardmaking Workshop (retired), Holiday Tags

Embellishments:  Silver Stickles, Tan and Blue Sparkles (retired), Ranger Clear and Silver Super Fine embossing powders

Other:  embossing folder by Darice