CASs Christmas

Just a simple CAS Christmas card to share today. I used a few die-cut pieces that have been sitting around for a while. The bird is cut from a Tim Holtz die and the branch is from a Spellbinders die. The sentiment is from Stamp Simply and is white-embossed on the red layer.

This card is entered in these challenges:
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #426 -- anything Christmas
Rudolph Days February -- anything Christmas
Dies R Us #115-- birds and bees
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #376  -- anything goes

What do you see?

It's time for another PINspirational Challenge, and that brings up a question. What do you see when you look at the new inspiration Pin? Most of my design teammates used the thematic approach -- a baby. But to me, the interesting thing was that this was basically a study in black and white, with just a bit of color, so I went with a black, white and gray color scheme with just a bit of yellow added. (I guess this could be a baby card, too, but that's not what I was going for.)  Anyway, I think that's the fun part of an inspiration challenge -- you can go any direction the inspiration leads you.

The herringbone technique I used for the background is a fun way to use up snippets of paper.  Most of the ones I used are from an old mat stack that actually has a graduation theme. The adorable koala and sentiment are from a Simon Says Stamp set.

So, what does the photo inspire you to make?  I hope you'll join the fun and link up your creation at the PINspirational Challenge.

My card is entered into these challenges:
Scribbles Designs #74 -- Three or more layers.
Word Art Wednesday #374 -- anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper
Pammy's Inky Pinkies #1908 -- anything goes

Christmas decor

       Here's my first Christmas card of the year. The ornament is gold-embossed on a white snippet, die-cut and placed on a scalloped oval die-cut from a gold foil snippet. The sentiment is also gold-embossed on a snippet, and I used a thematically coordinating patterned paper.  For the base, I started with black but it was too stark and gloomy, so I cut it to include a slight reveal of white card stock. (Sentiment is from Stamp Simply and the ornament is probably All-Night Media. It's an old wood-mounted one, anyway.)
       I did use a sketch for this, but I'm not sure where it originated, so I can't give credit.

This card is entered in these challenges:
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #425 -- green
ABC Christmas -- D is for decorations
Pixie's Snippet Playground #346 -- use snippets
Word Art Wednesday #375 -- anything goes
Craftyhazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- use patterned paper

Pinspirational Challenge Returns

     After taking a month off, PINspirational Challenge is back in a slightly different format. Same great inspirational photos from Pinterest, but we'll be highlighting entries the DT really liked rather than doing a random draw. As always, be inspired by the Pin to create whatever your heart desires, as long as we can see the inspiration.
     Look at these gorgeous roses in the Pin for this challenge. Love them. They inspired me to find this sweet Bugaboo image of roses and to use all these pretty shades of pink.
     The image is matted on a pink snipped, and the die cut sentiment (from xxx) is cut from a white snippet.
     Hope you'll be inspired and link up to PINspirational Challenge.

This card is entered into these challenges:
DieCut Divas  -- Love is in the Air
Crafty Sentiments -- Flowers
Catch the Bug -- Love is in the Air
Pixie's Snippet Playground #345 -- use snippets
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge -- patterned paper
Word Art Wednesday #372 -- anything goes