It's Sunday and whilst there is no Paper Players post from me today - we are taking a couple of weeks off from our design commitments to enjoy the festive season with our families - however fear not - as promised I still have a project to share with you today! 

My December technique classes featured creating backgrounds with the salt technique. I had created the following pair of cards cased from the lovely Jen Timko just for fun:

I just loved the white, layering and beautiful and unique sky created using this fun technique:

You can see Jen's card and a great video on the technique here. In my class we made a similar card using the 'Jingle All the Way' stamp set but the real focus of our class was a 3 dimensional Christmas bauble ornament and a co-ordinating box to gift it in, all featuring backgrounds made using this technique. Here is my finished bauble:

This bauble is quite stunning in real life; the layering, silver foil and embossing and dazzling diamonds glimmer paper, along with that amazing sky, really show the Sleigh Ride Edgelits off to full advantage. I'm so sorry that these will not be carried over on 4th January; if you haven't already purchased them, place your order now before it's too late!

Back soon with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Jingle All The Way Wood-Mount Bundle	Silver Cording Trim	Silver 5/8" Satin Ribbon	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper	Silver Foil Sheets
Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock	Embossing Buddy	Versamark Pad	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool (Uk)
Watercolor Paper	Aqua Painters	Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Iced Rhinestone Embellishments

Today it's time for a new challenge over at Create With Connie and Mary and this week we have a great sketch challenge for you:

Having contemplated the use of washi tape on today's card, I decided to take a more liberal interpretation and used my much loved Sleigh Ride Edgelits to create the layers on today's card:

I decided to use a piece of the rather dramatic black Winter Wonderland Specialty Designer Series Paper as the main feature paper for my card, layering this on a piece of gold foil and a base of Whisper White extra thick cardstock. This DSP is gorgeous - very glossy and with a beautiful sheen to it. I then layered my edgelits, cutting the trees out of gold glimmer paper and the houses out of Whisper White extra thick cardstock, but reversing both so that my sweeping lines went in the right direction according to the sketch! I stamped my sentiment from the co-ordinating stamp set 'Jingle All The Way' in Memento Black onto the white layer, just above the sweep of my final layer - Santa and his sleigh cut out of black glimmer paper and tied with a gold corded trim bow.  

I wasn't sure that black glimmer paper would work on a Christmas card, but I'm so glad I gave it a try; it really compliments the dsp on my card and just goes to prove that black glimmer paper has a life beyond Halloween! 

Do visit the other Design Team members to see how they used this week's challenge sketch; there's lots of inspiration over on their blogs too!

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Did you know that September is classical music month? In honour of this, the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge has 'musical' as its theme and that's where I'm linking up my card today:

It might not be classical, but I had that classic of all Christmas carols, Jingle Bells, in my head when I made today's clean and simple card:

I used a base of Very Vanilla with a piece of musical notepaper (I used some retired paper) - the current 'Home For Christmas' dsp has some paper printed with Christmas carol sheet music that would be perfect for this. I then set my top panel of Very Vanilla at a jaunty angle and stamped my sentiment from the 'Jingle All The Way' stamp set in Real Red alongside the bell image from Cozy Christmas', which I coloured in using Crushed Curry and Garden Green Stampin' Write Markers, adding some red berry pearls that I coloured with a red Sharpie.

A super simple card - maybe one for my piano teacher this Christmas, I'm sure she would appreciate it!

Back tomorrow with this week's Wednesday deals; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Cozy Christmas Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Home For Christmas Designer Series Paper	Very Vanilla A4 Cardstock	Jingle All The Way Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
Many Marvelous Markers	Pearl Basic Jewels