Joy to the World

Well I've finally found a few minutes to "blog" one of my Christmas cards... it's probably one of my favourites for the year, (though I haven't finished making all I need yet!) so I'm giving it to my Mum and Dad :-)

I made a three-step card, I've seen these around blogland and always fancied making one, it being Christmas and having almost no time to spare seemed to be the right time to try one, lol.  I used this great template and tutorial, it really wasn't that hard :-)

Sketch Saturday wants us to use any of their sketches after # 215, I've used # 240 though ended up adding the corner element to all four corners; I can't help it, I'm a symmetrical kinda gal!  The super sweet image is Berry, a digi from Wee Stamps. I coloured with Prismacolor pencils, adding some gloss to the berries.  The sentiment is a freebie from The Desert Diva, thanks very much :-) I was going to colour the ornament but decided against it. 

The image panel and narrow gold mat was cut using Nestabilities Standard Ovals as a template, the Kraft mat was cut using Nestabilities Floral Ovals, one of my favourite Nesties.  I just find the difference in size between the Standard and Floral Ovals doesn't always suit, so freehanding is the way to go.

The paper is Kaisercraft's Twig and Berry - 1 sheet (it's red one side and green the other!) Delightful Challenges wants us to use Red and Green and Stampin' for the Weekend wants us to Use Some Red, so I'm entering there.  The banner is from my Christmas scraps folder.  I used gold stickers (peel offs) from my stash for the borders and the corners, the leaves are from Mulberry Crafts and the Dewdrop berries are from The Ribbon Girl, I used very fine gold wire from my stash to finish the arrangement. Clear It Out has an Anything Goes theme and we can use any Stash so I'm entering there.

Now, the really significant thing about a three-step card is, wait for it, the three-steps! which of course are on the inside of the card.

I finished them with more of the Twig and Berry paper, gold stickers and a flourish cut with a Memory Box Snowflake Corner die.  The oval on the left came from a Kaisercraft 6" pad and the mat behind the jotting panel was another of the Floral Ovals dies.  The "JOY" letters are wood, coloured with Chalk White ink then embossed with iridescent EP, they (of course) look much nicer IRL!

Pile It On has P is for... for it's challenge, I'm thinking P is for Pencils, Peel Offs, Patterned Paper and Pretty image - I know, bit desperate :-)

I don't usually list the challenges I'm entering but as there are so may Christmas challenges running at the moment I thought you'd forgive me.... so I'm entering all these:

Papertake Weekly Christmas Creatures (NOT Berry, the little furry friend she's holding, lol)

Moving Along With The Times Walking in a Winter Wonderland

My Mums Craft Shop Winter/Christmas

Crafty Hands Season's Greetings/Winter

Brown Sugar Challenge Christmas

Jingle Belles Christmas

That Craft Place Christmas

Crafty Calendar Christmas
Deep Ocean Challenge Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Anything Christmas related)

Card Makin' Mamas Christmas

Colour Me Copic Holiday Themed

Sweet Stampin' Last Minute Christmas (I do have some even-more-last-minute cards to enter here too!!)

Crafts 4 Eternity Christmas Chaos (goes without saying, lol)

Cute Card Thursday Christmas Catch Up (I may, catch up that is!)

Paper Crafting Journey Christmas

Cuttlebug Mania Anything Christmas

Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge Anything Goes

Corrosive Challenge Anything Goes

Gem of a Challenge Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations Free and Easy

Divas by Design Anything Goes

I hope you like my card, I really do (which doesn't always happen, lol) I've got quite a few more cards to show over the next week or so; mostly Christmas and CAS - some CAS because I thought Clean and Simple was appropriate and some less CAS and more SOT - Short Of Time!!!

We're in the middle of a heatwave here, we failed by 0.9 degrees today to reach a December record of five days in a row over 38C; instead of a record it was just HOT - though not as hot as yesterday at 40.4C It's forecast HOT again tomorrow, but we should have a balmy 29C on Tuesday.  Our hottest month is February, so it looks like it's going to be a long hot summer, sigh.

I'll be back with some cards soon, until then, Happy Crafting Donna