Celebrate Everything Merry And Bright AYSI 284

Today I'm sharing my design team card for our new challenge over at As you See It where it's time for my favourite, a sketch challenge:

I love a good sketch, but I don't mind admitting this week's card was a struggle! Too little craft time and a chaotic craft room are not a good mix, so with my card making deadline looming, I was feeling the pressure. A few failed attempts and I decided therefore that simple would be best. I had seen the inspiration photo earlier in the day over at The Card Concept (there are actually two now for their second challenge of the month - fun!) and whilst I wasn't inspired by the travel theme, I loved their first inspo photo of brightly coloured stylised prints and the one for Bali was the inspiration for my card design today. The bold colours on a dramatic black background with bright pink floral accents led me to grab another of the designs in the 'Celebrate Everything' designer series paper pack and pull together a simple clean and layered Christmas card - take a look:

Here's the low-down on today's card:

I cut a panel of this brightly patterned paper, double mounted it onto Polished Pink and Shaded Spruce, and added it to a Basic Black cardbase. I added a sentiment from the 'Candy Canes Christmas' stamp set that seemed to fit this bold, fun design and accented it with a couple of diecut holly leaves (taken from the retired Poinsettia Dies, as they were just the right shape and style). I added some detail to the embossed lines with a Shaded Spruce marker to echo the holly design on the paper and finished with a trio of large red glittery enamel dot berries, taken from my stash:

So what do you think? Are you a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas colour schemes or do you like to break the mold every now and again and go with something more contemporary? I admit a black card base is not my usual Christmas card 'go to', but I think it works. I'm not sure I'm going to win any awards with this one (haha!) and the design team over at As You See It have created some AMAZING cards with this sketch, so you should definitely check those out. One thing's for sure I love the 'Celebrate Everything' designer series paper pack - this is definitely the paper that keeps on giving!

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. 

Here's a summary of our challenge rules:

• Create any card, scrapbooking page, 3D project or packaging project that fits the challenge.
• Please include the challenge graphic and link back to the challenge in your blog post. Turn off word verification so we can leave you lots of lovely comments. Make sure you link the post not the whole blog to the Linky. Use #AYSIXXX when uploading to a public gallery.
• If you’re unsure about ‘the rules’, check the details under the Challenge Guidelines tab on the As You See It Challenge homepage.
• In a sketch challenge, you are welcome to rotate or flip a sketch. You can replace shapes used such as substituting a circle panel for a square panel. However, we must be able to still see the basis of the original sketch in your finished product.

Enjoy your day; I'm off to a funeral - the wet and gloomy day definitely is reflective of that mood. I am hoping to be back in my craft room tomorrow though, so will hopefully be ready to share another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

CELEBRATE EVERYTHING 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 CM) DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (£16.50)	SWEET CANDY CANES CLING STAMP SET (ENGLISH) (£21.00)	BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	GRANNY APPLE GREEN A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	SHADED SPRUCE A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)	POLISHED PINK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.75)
BASIC WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.75)