Today it's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! It's my turn to host this week and I have my favourite, a sketch challenge for us to work with:
I created a sketch with a few layers, that also includes a diagonal, something I generally avoid! I decided that the layering lent itself to showcasing some papers, so I decided to break into a new pack and create a few Christmas cards. Here's the first one:
Here's the low-down on today's card:
Season of Green & Gold - The Season of Green & Gold Specialty Designer Series Paper is the star of today's cards. This paper is part of the Season of Green & Gold Suite Collection that is one of the Online Exclusives, so does not appear in the mini catalogue and can only be viewed online. The paper is a specialty paper featuring festive foliage and one side of each design includes gold foil detailing I can honestly say each of the patterns is truly beautiful. The gold and vanilla pattern I used on my card is my favourite, so that had to be the one I used on my first card. I matted my panel with one of gold foil and did the same to my second layer, onto which I heat embossed a sentiment from the 'Greetings Of The Season' stamp set.
Golden Greenery - For my 'any shape' element, I decided to add a bunch of coordinating foliage in Very Vanilla and gold foil, cut using the Golden Greenery Dies. It has a beautiful embossed detail and I finished my bunch with a simple gold twine bow:
I left my card base plain so as not to detract from the detail of the paper and foliage; a couple of sparkly gems was all I needed to complete my card.
Three Variations On My Design - I loved my first card so much, I decided to make a few more using other patterns and colour combos. The first one still uses a Very Vanilla card base, but this time with a panel of green and gold designer paper and green diecut foliage, cut straight from another of the sheets in the pack:
You could of course stamp the foliage too using hte 'Golden Greenery' stamp set and then diecut it too, but using the pre-printed paper is a great timesaver! My third card uses the same papers, but this time on an Old Olive card base. to pick up on the colour of the papers more:
My final card is similar to the one above, but this time with a slightly shorter sentiment layer (I prefer the longer length but this was my first one made and I couldn't bare to see it go to waste!) and a pair of bells nestled in my foliage, also cut from another of the paper sheets:
Here's all four of the cards together - which one do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The reverse of these papers have some fabulous patterns too, but I couldn't resist showcasing the gold foiled side - so elegant! If you haven't already, you should check out the 'Online Exclusives' area of my Stampin' Up! website - there are some fabulous products for your festive crafting. As for my sketch - I hope you'll play along with us over at The Paper Players this week - I can't wait to see what you create!
Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:
You can see all of my Product and 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any.
Before you reach for your ink and papers, check out what our amazing team has created to inspire you this week:
The Paper Players Design Team
Here's a quick recap of our challenge rules:
1. Create a new paper project
2. Upload your creation to your blog with a link back to us and provide a direct link to the post featuring your challenge submission.
3. Please link your card to no more than four challenges, TOTAL.
4. Have FUN!
Enjoy your day; no plans here today so I'm hoping to squeeze in a little crafty time at some point. I'll be back later in the week with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:
