Seeing Stars

 

Challenge #33 at Twofer is Stars.  This was more difficult than I thought it would be - mainly because I see stars as an afterthought and I'm pretty sure the prompt has to be key to the design - so I hope both cards fit the prompt!

My stars die is part of the Frantic Stamper Village Sky set.  This set also contains some dinky little clouds, a funky little sun, a moon and even a jet plane - great for scene building!

My first card was inspired by Anita's gorgeous card.  Anita used stars as flowers in her first twofer design and it reminded me of the origin of the Christmas tree lights story.  A man was coming home late one night and was inspired by the stars twinkling through the trees to tie candles to a fir tree (a real fire trap to be sure).  So that's where I went with the first card.  

Here's a closeup of the card

I wanted to play in Squash It Challenge #2 which is to use a Christmas Embossing Folder AND a Christmas stamp.  I embossed the PEACE on earth (Waltzing Mouse Say It Loud Winter) in silver and then ran it through the Cuttlebug Snowflakes Embossing Folder - the only Christmas embossing folder I own!

Christmas Kickstart Challenge #42  has the same embossing folder technique challenge!

You may not be able to tell from the photo but the card stock is actually a very deep blue.  I also distressed the snow drifts and the branches with Blue Jeans DI to give them a blueish tinge because I wanted to play along with Challenge #23 of the Rainbow Card Challenge - Sparkling Sapphire.

Which coincides nicely with Less is More Challenge #432 - Blue & Silver or Red & Gold!

and also with Inspirational Challenge #225 - Night

My second card was the one I struggled with.  I had thought to go with a baby card and use the sentiment "A Star is Born".  I was scrolling through my stamps for inspiration when the line "All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by" popped into my head.  So I ended up pulling out the Waltzing Mouse Ocean Bound Stamp Set which has a lovely tall ship silhouette in it and flanked it with a few of the Village Sky Stars cut from marine blue!  The stars aren't the focal point of the scene but they definitely lifted the design!

I have been meaning to try this Lifesaver idea out for a few months now.  I cut two rings out using stitched circles (Crea-nest-lies XL Dies #21 and #33) - one in red and 1 in white.  I cut the white ring in quarters and placed two quarter on opposite sides of the red ring (or maybe it was a the other way around but either way works).  I then wound some twine around the joins and used it to frame my tall ship and stars scene - cute huh!!  My husband comes from a naval family so I love new nautical ideas!

I used a piece of striped DP so I could enter Use Your Stuff Challenge #409.  This piece of DP has probably been in my stash for 10 years - good to finally use it (or at least some of it)!

I specifically chose the colour scheme of red white and blue on this card so I could enter it in the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge to use Red White and Blue.

This Waltzing Mouse Ocean Bound stamp set was bought in 2013 and hasn't seen ink in a few years, it was good to dust it off and use it again!  I'm also entering this card in Retro Rubber Challenge #147!

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you enjoyed your visit.  If you leave a comment, I'll know where to find you and can return the favour!
Hugs,

Kate