ABC Christmas Challenge - A & B are for?

Over at the ABC Christmas Challenge, we're starting our eleventh (!) trip through the alphabet...I'm the host, and the themes for this month are:

'A is for Advent'
&
'B is for Bells'

There are a couple of prizes on offer for two lucky winners:

Kaisercraft 'Jingle Bells' & 'Home for Christmas' stamp sets:

I took the traditional colours of advent (purple & pink) as my inspiration for my first card, and used Distress Inks in shades of those colours (Tattered Rose, Seedless Preserves & Dusty Concord) to ink up three of the tree stamps from the 'Scribbly Christmas' set by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous. Once stamped I used a wet paintbrush to blend out the colours a little. The sentiment stamp is from the same set...but I inked it in two separate parts so that I could place the words in the spaces between the trees. I distressed the edges a little, then added some faux stitching using my CutterBee Bug and a black gel pen before matting it on to some coordinating pink and purple card.

The bell stamp used on my second card is an old one by Docrafts simply called 'Christmas Bells'. I stamped it on to red card using Versamark Ink, then heat embossed it using metallic gold embossing powder by WOW. I cut a circle around the image, and then a scalloped circle mat from gold card using some of my Nesties, adding some foliage cut from more gold card using a die from the 'Holiday Greens Mini' set by Tim Holtz for Sizzix. The sentiment is from the same set used on my previous card, and was heat embossed in gold.

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

• A Bit More Time to Craft - Anything Goes
• Crafter's Cafe - Holidays
• Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes
• Cute Card Thursday - Anything Goes
• Merry Little Christmas - Anything Christmas Goes

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