First cards of this year

Hello crafty friends. I have finally resurfaced after 2 months of silence on the blog. With my husband's recurring health issues and his surgery early December, followed by a slow recovery, I simply did not have the time or the energy to do any crafting. The weekend before last, I finally managed a little crafty time in my craftroom and even managed to create 2 cards for different challenges. I did not manage to post them on the blog before some of the linkys closed but I am just in time for a couple of other challenges I wanted to join.

First up, I have this Christmas card. I started by blending some silver pigment ink through my new stencil (part of the Tiny wreath bundle by Gina K), but when I realised it would take too long to dry, I sprinkled clear embossing ink on top and heat embossed it. I then blended several distress inks over my panel and added some water droplets before die cutting it with my new MFT die. The white heat-embossed sentiment is a favourite from an older stamp set by Studio Calico. I foam-mounted my panel onto some Fog cardstock (SSS) and finished off with a few sequins.

I'm playing at:

 Jingle Belles - Look what Santa brought me (i.e. new schtuff)

CCAYR January - Let it snow

Sparkles Forum - #112 New year, new stash

Sparkles Forum Christmas - #96 Add some sparkle

My birthday card came together really quickly after seeing a tv commercial. I stamped the banners and sentiment from my NBUS Birthday Stacks set (Concord & 9th) in Black Jack ink (Catherine Pooler) and used the single solid stamp on a few of the banner flags. Easy peasy. I did die cut my panel using a stitched rectangle die (SSS) and foam-mounted it to my card base.

I'm playing at:

Seize the Birthday - #157 Stamping only!

Aud Sentiments - #219 Anything goes with a sentiment