Love, Peace and Joy for Rudolf Day

Good morning my crafting friends. You must think I have been very lazy or otherwise occupied just lately as I have posted very few pieces, but I have actually been quite busy making things that I couldn't show on my blog until they had been posted off and received by various family members and friends.

However, today it is Rudolf Day again, the 25th of the month, when the lovely  Sandra from Stamping for Pleasure , challenges us to make a Christmas card or two. I like to make half a dozen but last month, after the prototype, I lost momentum, so this time I decided to have a production line going from the beginning, and here are the cards I have made.

I used sponges and Adirondak inks, lemonade, and sailboat blue, to create the background, which I then trimmed to size and distressed around the edges with Momento Paris dusk. The nativity image is cut from medium weight black textured card, using a bought file for my Silhouette cameo machine. This card has very low fibre content so the detail cuts very well. I glued this in place making sure the star and baby came into the yellow zone of the background. Then I wrapped a piece of ribbon around the top and from it I hung an angel charm. I had two proper charms and three angels from a broken angel chimes. For the sixth card I used a paper sticker angel from a set I bought 'way back when'. I then added a matching bow. I used the same Paris dusk inkpad to stamp the words taken from a set by Woodware.

Finally I mounted the panel onto a dull gold textured paper and then on to a 12cm square navy card. I bought a huge set of navy and black card blanks in various shapes and sizes, probably from create and Craft, many moons ago, and I have now decided it is about time I made use of them, so I designed the card specially to fit these ones. I then just added a drop of stickles glitter glue to the centre of the star. So I now have a set of six cards that I am quite pleased with. I'll just print off some inserts for them and they can join my growing collection of Christmas cards.

Well, I had made these cards and went ahead to write this post without checking Sandra's site. I have just been to it now to get the link above, and I was so surprised. As this is the sixth month, she has challenged us to make a set of six, identical or different cards. So that was a lucky coincidence wasn't it?

I shall also enter them in the following challenges:
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge 78: Get Inky.
One stop Craft Challenge: Christmas in June.
Stamping for the Weekend Challenge 12: Show us your Style. I love to use silhouette images over an inked background.
Make it Monday 95: Any Papercraft.