ABC Christmas Challenge - E, F & G are for?

We have another fun ABC Christmas Challenge starting today...Carol is the host, and we have three wonderful themes this month:

'E is for Embellishments'

'F is for Fabric'

&

'G is for Glitz'

Carol has donated these two awesome Hunkydory card kits as prizes for two lucky winners:

I know that I probably could have combined all three of the themes on one card, but I couldn't resist making a separate card for each one...so that's three more Christmas cards for the box!

I tend not to embellish my cards too much (especially Christmas ones that I may ending up paying to post!), but I found some simple little adhesive gemstones that I used on my first card. The image is 'Xmouse Ornament' by Penny Black, which I coloured using watercolour pencils, then carefully cut it out and added the gemstones to his snowflake. I made a simple background by embossing a piece of white card using my Tim Holtz/Sizzix 'Snowfall' embossing folder, adding a Lili of the Valley sentiment along the bottom. I popped the little mouse on top using some 3D foam pads.

Challenges for this card:

• Addicted to CAS - Fluffy 
• Allsorts - Your Favourite Season (Winter!) 
• Crafty Friends - Gemstones/Pearls 
• Happy Little Stampers (Christmas) - Anything Christmas Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Mondays) - Whatever the Weather 
• Winter Wonderland - Fuzzy Wuzzy 

I'm also not one for using fabric on my cards...despite having quite the collection of ribbon, lace and other trims! I picked a snippet of cream coloured lace, and found a vintage-looking Lili of the Valley image (from a really old sheet of pre-coloured die cut images), and some vintage-looking papers (from the 'Mistletoe' pad by Craftwork Cards...picked up as a total bargain in a charity shop recently) to go with it. I inked around the edge of the image using 'Old Paper' Distress Ink, to take the edge off the whiteness of it and make it blend in better with the papers, then distressed all of the edges and added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen.

Challenges for this card:

• As You Like It - Layers...One or Many (Ooh, this is tough, but I'm going to go with many...more opportunity to use up those pretty papers!)
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Goes (Optional Vintage) 
• Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper - Anything Goes 
• Creative Knockouts - Lots of Layers
• Sparkles Forum Christmas - Vintage 
• The Sisterhood of Crafters - Red

The 'G for Glitz' theme is right up my street! I have a fairly sizable collection of the embossing glitters by WOW...and love how sparkly they are, and can make a really simple stamped image look really pretty (and impressive!). I sued a new stamp on this card...it's called 'Connor's Crown Jewels' by Indiglo Blu and I found it in the 'Bargain Bin' of a lovely 'Aladdin's Cave' of a craft shop a couple of weeks ago. There are two elements combined in the stamp...some beautiful hanging baubles and a snowy border, so I decided to try to use two different embossing glitters. I stamped the image on to a piece of black card using Versamark Ink, then carefully poured 'Sparkling Snow' embossing powder on to the snowy border part of the image, removed the excess, then covered the middle portion of the stamp with 'Metallic Gold Sparkle' embossing glitter. The sentiment stamp is from a set by Lili of the Valley.

I'm also entering these cards into the following challenges:

• Artistic Inspirations - Anything Goes
• Crafting from the Heart - Anything Goes
• Crafty Sentiments - Anything Goes
• Love to Scrap - Anything Goes
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Simon Says Stamp (Wednesdays) - Anything Goes
• The Holly & the Ivy - Anything Christmas Goes
• Through the Craft Room Door - Anything Goes

For more inspiration from my lovely DT buddies, please pop over to the ABC Christmas Challenge.