Card à l'orange

I have been putting off the July Christmas Card Challenge for some time now.  I had hoped to try adding some real orange slices to a card but I had a few problems there - they'll look and smell great hanging on our Christmas tree but they just weren't right for cards.
Anyway back to this card.  I've had this paper for over a year now waiting for something special to use it on.  My friend Ruth bought it on a trip to Venice.  I have a whole A3 sheet of it and intend making a few more cards for all my Irish friends here in Luxembourg - because of the orange and green colour scheme and because those birds remind me of images from the Book of Kells.
There was an ornate oval shape in the patterned paper which I thought I would go well with the one of my new WMS Ornate Ornaments stamps.  I don't have the 2012 ornament dies yet so I've just cut it out by hand - which was quite easy so I might not bother buying them now.
Before I go any further do you like that little Christmas tree on the ornament and stamped along the bottom of the envelope.  Well I thought it looked like a Christmas tree anyway.  Turns out it's a snowflake leg and Claire will show you how to create the most exquisite snowflake using it here.   That woman's genius never ceases to amaze me !

I have fussy cut the surrounding pattern to give it depth, as this side view will give a better view.  The border die and smaller embellishments are from Spellbinders Persian Accents - yes not very Irish but it had the oval shape I was looking for.  A little orange organza bow et voila.








As I was assembling the ornament I thought it would be neat to make it detachable and usable as an ornament on the tree or something.  So I stamped another image, attached it to the back (sandwiching the ribbon for hanging) and attached it to the front of the card with a little blutack so it's easily removable.
Here are the two sides of the ornament.  I've stamped a greeting behind the ornament so it won't look to empty with the ornament removed.





This is actually the 2nd card à l'orange I made.  This one was inspired by the brilliant sketch this week at WMS.  Originally I had the image in the middle which was pretty ordinary really, and I didn't think to add a border on the bottom.

3-2-1 A recipe for a Christmas card

This is my offering for the September Christmas Card Challenge at WMS - a 3-2-1 recipe (3 Waltzing Mouse images, 2 embellishments and 1 circle). I don't mind saying this one has had me stumped for a while, until I saw WMSC124 and the pieces all seemed to fall into place for me.
The focal image is from the 2011 Holiday Ornaments set and the sentiments are from the Say it Loud Winter Holidays set.
The snowflakes were cut from white glitter card using the Spellbinders Create a Flake 3 set.
The scalloped vellum circle was cut using a Nellie Snellen die and was set off by a teal glitter card circle underneath it.

Peace on Earth

I made this card for my November offering for the Waltzing Mouse Christmas Card Challenge - to use a light source. I was inspired by the brilliant sketch WMSC124 by Karin Äkesdotter and particularly her take on the sketch.  I had it in mind to create a picture postcard scene as she had done and split the sentiment.   My friend Lena came to visit me on Wednesday and brought some goodies to try out - in particular the On the edge trees die by Tim Holtz.  It seemed a good idea to add some trees to the wintry landscape I had in mind for my picture postcard.  The deer surveying this peaceful scene was the smaller Movers and Shapers reindeer die from Tim Holtz. Originally I had intended to stamp a star as my light source, but while searching for black card for my night sky I spied a vellum circle and thought it would serve as the rising moon peeking through the trees.  Papers were from Basic Grey.