Today I'm sharing a card for the current Inspire.Create Challenge where they have a great sketch that I just couldn't resist:
I was tempted to go with a focal piece of designer series paper and one of the fabulous festive word dies we have for the horizontal element, but with some great Design Team examples of this, I decided to take a slightly different tack and explore options around the horizontal piece. I ended up making two cards, each with the same basic design, however one portrait and the other landscape - take a look:
And here's the landscape version that uses the whole of each of the diecut pieces:
Here's the low-down on today's card:
Bethlehem Edgelits - I decided that the landscapes in the Bethlehem Edgelits set would make a perfect horizontal feature on my card and that informed my decision to make two cards: one in a landscape orientation in order to accommodate them completely and a second in a portrait orientation that necessitated me trimming them to fit. For each card, I layered a white top layer on a Night of Navy bottom layer and embossed the sentiment in white onto the navy base layer.
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star - You might be wondering how I created my atmospheric night sky; furthermore, you might be surprised to know that there was no sponging, brayering or splattering required. This rather realistic sky is courtesy of one of the patterns in the Twinkle Twinkle designer series paper pack. Part of a suite originally designed for baby and children projects, many of the starry papers in this pack work for plenty of other projects - especially this one. It is easy to overlook certain packs of papers and to be fair the catalogue doesn't always make it easy to see some of the detail. The lovely people at Stampin' up! have produced this great video though that shows these papers in more detail:
Here's the papers from the current seasonal catalogue too:
And of course you can continue to follow my blog; you all know how much I love patterned paper!
A Night In Bethlehem - With the exception of the 'O Holy Night' sentiment on the front of the landscape card (this comes from the 'Illuminated Christmas' stamp set in the current seasonal stamp set), all of the stamping on my card comes from the Night in Bethlehem stamp set, which also has this beautiful verse that is great for the inside of your card:
The silhouetted images are great for easy decorating of your envelopes too - love a co-ordinated envelope! I do like to make cards that remind us of the true meaning of Christmas and this set is one of my favourites for reminding us why we celebrate at this special time of year. So which of these cards is your favourite - the portrait or landscape version? I like them both but would love to know what you think - do leave me a comment below with your thoughts!
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 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any.
Enjoy your day, however you choose to spend it. The James family is off to the dentist for our 6-monthly checkup followed by something special in store which I'll share with you later in the week. I'll be back tomorrow with another project though for sure. Until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: