My 1st Christmas Card !!!

In a very unusual step for me I have made a Christmas Card! OMG....

I usually have good intentions of making them early, buy the stuff but invariably I don't end up actually making them until the last minute. I purposely didn't put my Christmas items at the top of the bookcase this year as I wanted to make them during the course of the year. Whether this is a fluke or not remains to be seen. Of course it has been helped that a lot of the challenges this week have a Christmas in July theme :)

The following challenges have been incorporated into this card :-

• 365 Cards Day 111 - Bold colours & stripes
• Just Christmas & Birthday Cards - Sketch for layout
• Winter Wonderland #7 - Christmas Present
• 3 Clovers Thursday #22 - Christmas in July
• Cute Card Thursday #69 - Xmas in July
• If the Shoe Fits - Christmas card

I started out by choosing the circular motifs for the card. I have a box of assorted items that have been cut from recyled shop bought christmas cards. Quite often there are lovely designs or even just the sentiments can be re-used, good for the environment and great for the crafty pocket :)

As the dominant colour was red I decided to use this as the colour for the Nestabilities scalloped mats. The papers are from DCWV stacks. The sentiment is a cardstock sticker from a DCWV drawer set from QVC which was matted onto a scrap of black card. These elements have been popped on 3d foam. The gems are from Paperchase.

The bright colours and stripes have also enabled me to cross one of the older 365 cards challenges off my to do list so that was a nice bonus. Only 45 more to go......