CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE WEEK 6

Six week of my Christmas Challenge down, and only a few more Christmas sets left to work with.

 All of the sets that I used this past week and the few that are remaining are the "older" sets. It's funny, but the design and "feel" of these older sets is completely different from more current ones. Thus, they are somewhat different to work with. If you have any idea of what I mean. You'll see what I am referring to in this week's offerings.

I have always loved this first set. Only one of the stamps, however, is Christmas-y. It's a pretty cool quote, accompanied by a skinny stylized Christmas tree. Long and thin, it lends itself to being the main focal point on a card front. 

I embossed the quote and tree in black, adding a bit of Stampin' Blends color to the tree. It is always fun to work on kraft cardstock, so I followed through with that on almost the entire card. 

Before I added the thin green strip of tree paper with the black rhinestones at the bottom, I'd had the red and white baker's twine to bring a little red into the composition to balance a bit with the tree ornaments. After looking at it a long time, I decided to add the green strip. That bit of baker's twine showing on either side of the strip was just right.

The set from which the tree stamp that I used in this next card came from was a set of gift tag types of stamps. 

Before I even randomly chose this set, I had decided that I wanted to use Brushos for the background of whatever card I was creating that day. I ended up using greens and turquoise in the Brushos on glossy cardstock for my background, then stamping the tree in black against it. 

In my stash of old old old DSP, I discovered this piece that complemented the splashy Brusho background nicely. It is so old that it is thin and only printed on one side. That's old.

Of course, when I die cut my "Merry" in -- whoa, remember Taken With Teal?? -- a dark turquoise, it blended in too well with the stripes of the DSP. Shadowing the letters with black worked admirably to make the little sentiment stand out.

This next card is simple and subtle, but, I think, effective, given the sentiment I chose to use.

A one-layer card with no embellishments, I think it speaks softly, but powerfully. 

I had chosen to purchase this next set of crocheted snowflake stamps in honor of my mother, who has made many gorgeous crocheted snowflakes for my Christmas tree over the years. 

Since the snowflakes were so detailed and lovely in and of themselves, I wanted them to be the only real feature of the card. Setting the omff center succeeded in giving it a snowy asymmetrical look to each of the popped up squares. 

Blue and white. Ahhh. 

My next card is something of an experiment that I am not sure is successful or not. 

This happy and jolly ho ho ho banner toting Santa is so fun. I thought he would look cute set against a snowflake background. So, I looked through my stash of DSP and found this adorable subtle paper that I thought would be perfect for my great experiment.

What I did was to stamp Santa dear in Memento Tuxedo Black ink right onto the light-colored DSP. I then proceeded to color it in with Stampin' Blends and a white gel pen. It was fun to do, but I am just not sure about the end result. 

Feeling a little disgruntled at this point, I finished it off simply and in an old-fashioned manner. Not my favorite of my Christmas Challenge cards. 

This next card I love completely. It is so uplifting and jolly looking, both in the stamp and the polka dotted paper, finished off with the three star sequins, a viewer just can't help but smile. 

Once again, the black stamped image is colored with Stampin' Blends. Have I mentioned lately that I just LOVE those Blends??? They are ever so much fun to work with, and they always do a great job.

The card measures 5 1/2" wide by 3 3/4" tall. 

Finally, I feel fortunate to have gotten today's card (as well as this blog post) finished. You see, today was our family Christmas. It is now almost 9:30 at night, and I am just writing this all. I am lucky that it was an easy card to do because I had very little time this morning to crank it out.

Gladly, it was a set that I have always been in love with. Maybe you even remember it. It consists of a row of reindeer (today's card, of course), a row of funky snowmen, and a row of cool-looking elves. It is impossible to choose a favorite from these three. 

Thinking about Santa's sleigh taking off within a few days, however, and maybe good ol' Rudolph leading the way, coerced me into choosing the row of reindeer -- Rudolph along with the eight other resentful reindeer.

I also decided to give them all a little bleach job in their hair. And added a Wink of Stella to Rudolph's glowing proboscis. 

Set against some more of the polka dot DSP that I used in yesterday's card, and then on top of a knitted looking red and white background, I love the look and feel of the card. It's another one that just makes me smile.

That means that, as of today, I have completed 42 cards for this challenge. I think there are three stamp sets left, which will bring me right up to Christmas Day. 

What did you really think about this Challenge and the fact that I posted a week's worth of cards each Saturday during the Challenge time? Was it a complete bore? Or did you have as much fun looking at them as I did creating them?

Either way, thanks for your patience!

Challenging

Smiles.