Pile It On! Challenge - No Rectangles

We have another fun Pile It On! Challenge starting today...and the theme is:

'No Rectangles'

Our sponsor this week is Sweet Pea Stamps:

Prize - 4 digi images of the winner's choice!

I used my largest scalloped Nestie die to make a cute circle card...featuring a little Penny Black snowman from the 'Jolly Friends' set. I coloured him using watercolour pencils, then added some sparkle to the snow using a Wink of Stella pen. For the background, I embossed the pink card using a Cuttlebug snowflake folder, then distressed the edges a little and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a white gel pen. The snowflakes were cut using a Cuttlebug die, and the adhesive pearls are from Hobbycraft.

Here are the challenges I've piled on:

• Pile It On! - No Rectangles
• 4 Crafty Chicks - Anything Goes
• 52 Christmas Card Throwdown - Pick a previous theme (I chose 'Snowman' from July 2015)
• ABC Challenge - U for Unlimited
• Allsorts - Christmas
• Card Mania - Use a Stamp or Digi
• Crafty Creations - Colourful
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Extra - Anything Goes
• C.R.A.F.T.- Shaped Cards
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Christmas
• Creative Moments - Anything Goes
• One Crazy Stamper - Christmas/Winter
• Penny Black & More - Anything Christmas
• Ribbon Girls - Anything Goes
• Sweet Stampin' - Dies and/or Punches
• Wags 'N Whiskers - Not a Square
• Winter Wonderland - Anything Christmas

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the Pile It On! Challenge.

Snow is Falling...

Surprise, surprise..I have another Christmas card to show you today...this time I cheated a little, and used one of the Lili of the Valley die cut images...cutting it into a circle shape with one of my Nesties, and adding lots of Flowersoft 'snow'. The papers are from the 'Believe' pad by My Mind's Eye, the brads are BasicGrey, the gold lace is from Dunelm Mill, and the sentiment is also by Lili of the Valley.

Challenges for this card:

• Crafty Catz - Add Texture (Flowersoft 'snow')
• Do You Stack Up - Brads
• Fab 'N Funky - Die Cuts/Punches
• Lili's Little Fairies - Snow is Falling
• Moving Along with the Times - Stitch Up
• Sketch Saturday - Sketch

Side-step Card Tutorial

For my card for this fortnight's ABC Challenge, I decided to make a 'Side-step' card...here's a quick tutorial of how I made it.

1. Using an A4 piece of card for the base of my card, I marked out the following measurements (click on the photo for a larger view):

2. I then cut along the red line (using a craft knife & a steel ruler), mountain folded along the blue lines, and valley folded along the green lines (creasing the folds with my bone folder to get a crisp fold). My base card then looked like this:


Here's a view from the front, so that you can see the 'steps':


3. My next step was to cut the card to decorate the front of the card, and each of the 'steps'. I also added a strip of ribbon at the bottom at this stage, so that I'd be able to tie a bow around it once I'd assembled the card.


4. I then attached the panels to the card using DST. There's no need to decorate the parts I've left white, as these will not be seen when the card is assembled.


Here's a view with the card standing up, so you can see how it's beginning to take shape:


5. I then coloured the images I was going to use, stamped my sentiment, and matted all of them, ready to put on the card.


6. Finally, I added the images and sentiment to my base card using foam pads, and tied a bow around the ribbon strip I added earlier.


For information on the products used on this card, please see the post above.

I had lots of fun making this card....it really was very simple...just a bit of careful measuring and cutting at the start...and a great way to display multiple images, or create a scene. The instructions can easily be adapted to fit different images, and of course you can 'flip' it to have the 'steps' on the other side.

This tutorial will also be posted on the ABC Challenge Tutorial blog, where there is a challenge using this technique running alongside the current ABC Challenge.

I really hope that some of you will have a go at this...please let me know if you do...I'd love to come and take a peek! :0)

New ABC Challenge Tutorial Blog

The ABC Challenge Tutorial blog launched today with it's first monthly challenge!


There will be a new technique tutorial by one of the ABC Challenge DT members each month...with a challenge to run alongside the ABC Challenges...and fabby prizes up for grabs!
Click the banner to check out Vicky's fab 'Cracked Glass' tutorial...and check out the gorgeous prize on offer for this month's challenge!

Please scroll down for today's card.