The Christmas Gift

Good afternoon friends, and I hope your weekend is going well. After a sticky start ("himself" managed to pick up a puncture in a tyre yesterday and after about an hour on the phone, managed to track a replacement down ... 30 miles away!) the wheel is now back on the (well, his wagon!) and 'normality' has returned to Casa Mia.

I've been inspired by a couple of challenges this week, and I also wanted to have a play with the contents of my last parcel from Crafter's Companion ... here is the result:

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE Christmas, and now I work in a school I actually get to enjoy the festivities; when I worked in retail I was sooooo fed up of it as it seemed as though the decorations and gift ideas had been in the store for what seemed like months. However, I feel sometimes as though the true meaning of Christmas (one baby who was born as a "gift" to the world) gets lost in the razzle dazzle of the 'must-have-gift'. This very simple image reminds me of the Crib Service on Christmas Eve, when the youngest members of our church dress up as characters from the Nativity.

My card recipe is follows:

• Base Card - is Centura Pearl in Snow White which I cut, scored and folded to make a 10.5cm x 14.7cm card. I embossed my card using the Petite Dot Embossalicious Folder
• Image - this stable scene was one of the goodies in the 2011 Christmas Club - The Sequel by Paulette from Create with TLC.  I brought the manger and stable to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens and Craf-T Chalks (together with a Versamark Pen) in the following colours:
• Star - Yellow, Yellow Orange, Gold Gel Pen
• Stable and Manger - Tan, Light Brown, Dark Brown
• Baby Jesus - FS2, FS3, Grey, Gold Gel Pen
• Ground - Burnt Sienna, Tan
• Sky - Royal Blue
• Sentiment - is also by Paulette from Create with TLC and this one came from the 2011 Christmas Club. I made my own banner shape and as the text was larger than I wanted my banner to be, I cut round it (and opened the top of the J so you can see the stable behind it).

This one is (I feel) a very CAS as well as white on white card - hope you like it.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Day 321 - Super Sketchy Sunday at 365 Cards
• Challenge #74 - It'll be All White on the Night at Little Miss Muffet Challenge
• Show It Off ... Party #7 at Create with TLC
• November 2013 Challenge - Christmas/Winter at Crafter's Companion Challenge
• A Month Of Holiday Cards Challenge at Beccy's Place

Hope the rest of your weekend is good!

Hugs, Helen x