Challenge overload!

I went to bed last night thinking, I haven't done a card yet for my Christmas card challenge for the week. And I might not get to stamp on Saturday. So I'd better make sure I do a Christmas card tomorrow.

When I got online this morning, the first thing I saw was Sharon's Stamp Simply challenge: to use black and white plus one color. That could be Christmasy, I thought.

Then I went to check out the limited supply challenge on SCS. And guest hostess Angel offered us a doozy: make three cards with the same stamps, papers, inks, hardware, and ribbon. Well... it seemed natural to me to combine these two challenges since I was already going to be limited on supplies anyway. So I chose to use real red with my black and white for my three Christmas cards. My stamps are an Inkadinkado poinsettia and a sentiment from Perfect Presentation. I used dotted red paper from the hostess prints pack, along with black and white cardstock. The crystal brads are from Making Memories, and I used white organdy ribbon - although I goofed and didn't have enough of the wide ribbon I used on one card so I had to sub narrow ribbon instead. Oops! On each card I used my Sakura clear glitter pen to accent the main poinsettia(s) and mounted them with foam tape.

My first card here uses yet one more challenge: Beate's sketch for this weekend. I fiddled with it a little because I thought it looked better with the larger panels moved slightly. The large poinsettia panel was done with generation stamping (first, second, and third) until the panel was covered. I edged these panels in black to make them stand out more - I don't think I've ever used white as a layer before, but I like it!

The next card was actually the first one I made (hence the ribbon snafu). I punched the poinsettias with a Marvy square punch and then layered onto black squares. The corners were punched with the ticket corner punch to make a place for the brads.

Finally, my last card. By this time I was really feeling challenged since I felt like I used up most of my good ideas on the first two cards. But I do like the idea of putting the brad in the center of the poinsettia - they didn't look right to me anywhere else. I stamped the poinsettia border on the bottom in third generation and did the sentiment with my Stamp-a-ma-Jig. The main poinsettia was punched with Marvy punches.

Whew, I'm exhausted now! (But in a good way.)