Ditch the DPs at Sparkles Christmas Challenge

It's August 1st, and time for a new challenge at Sparkles Christmas Challenge.  This month, we're looking for cards that don't use any patterned/designer paper. We hgave two sponsors this month - and that means two prizes!

Crafty Sentiments are offering three digis to one winner



And Crafters Companion are offering a £10 voucher to the other.



For my card, I made a snowy background by stamping a splatter pattern (the stamp is an Anita's one but there's no name on it) on dark blue card and embossing it, and doing the same with this snow-capped cottage image which was part of a collection that a crafter I knew many years ago produced - she put together a range of images and had them made into a limited number of rubber sheets. I don't know whether the original image was her own design or a piece of free clip art. But it gets lots of use every Christmas!

All the stamping and embossing was done with a Brilliance pad in Moonlight White and Stamp-n-Stuff embossing powder in White Opaque. I've tried many, many different combinations to get good, bold white embossing on dark card, but that's the one that works best for me. The greeting, stamped in blue, was a magazine freebie last Christmas.

I had planned to add a bit of bling, but once I'd assembled the card I thought the relative simplicity of the image looked better without it.