It's Sunday and time for this week's new challenge over at The Paper Players! Our superstar leader the lovely Nance is the hostess this week and she has a sketch for us to work with:
I took the opportunity to make another Christmas card today, this time in a rather unusual colour scheme - take a look:
Here's the low-down on today's card:
Iconic Christmas - I decided to feature the tree from the Iconic Christmas set on my card today. Now I think this set is a little like Marmite - you either love it or you hate it! With all those teeny tiny iconic festive images I loved it the moment I saw it; you can stamp just the outlines, or you can use one or both of the infill stamps and a little two-step stamping to colour them in. You also have the option to use the co-ordinating Ornamental Christmas Framelits Dies to cut out some of them so that you can see the detail on a second layer below, as I've done on my card today. I honestly think the biggest hurdle with this set is that it's difficult to see it's true potential in the catalogue - you need to play with it to see how it all comes together. The set itself is more versatile than it looks - I'll be back to share more makes with it in coming weeks I'm sure. I tweaked the base of Nance's sketch to a 6" x 6" square rather than a rectangle, as the tree is a little too large for this layout to work comfortably on a standard A6 card, but all of the main elements are there so it works.
A Quilted Christmas - I used a piece of the Quilted Christmas 6" x 6" Designer Series Paper for my background panel, making sure to cut the pattern so that it was even and centralised within the panel. I matted it in white - not something I do often, but it really helps define the edge of this patterned paper and makes it stand out from the Pool Party card base.
Unorthodox Christmas Colours - When I initially sat down to make today's card, I knew exactly how I was going to work with the sketch, however I hadn't decided which patterned paper I wanted to use for the right-hand panel. I flicked through my swatches and decided on this one from the Quilted Christmas set and it inspired my PoolParty base and Lemon-Lime Twist Christmas tree. Not the most traditional of Christmas colour combinations although I love the bright and zingy Christmas tree. Here's my swatch in case you would like to use it as inspiration for your festive projects:
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.
So what do you think? Do these colours work or are they are little too non-traditional for the festive season? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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!
I look forward to seeing what you create with our sketch this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend as it will be over all too quickly; we had our usual day of sport yesterday so today is about finishing our homework and then we have a change of sport this afternoon, with Ben going sailing with friends. Let's hope it stays fine, although I guess he will get wet whatever the weather! I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!
Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: