'A thorny affair' plus who won the Tim Holtz die

'A thorny affair' is the name of the Penny Black stamp I used for today's card - bought with a voucher I won from 1-2-3 Stitch, in Penny Black's Saturday Challenge for March. I've seen this stamp being beautifully used by Jules more than once and it was on my wish list for ages:

I used:

- 6" x 6" square white card stock

- Penny Black's 'A thorny affair' stamped using Memento 'London fog' and coloured with Pro Markers plus a tickle of white Sakura Gel pen on the berries. Normally the holly leaves would be much richer and darker but I had my heart set on using the quite pale brad and backing paper. In fact, there are lighter varieties of holly 'cos we have one in the front garden - and I added a touch of Anita's Glaze to the holly berries

- red backing card by SU - it's 'Real Red' and I did the usual trick of drawing round the outside of the die I'd used to cut the image then hand cutting (Nesties Eighteen)

- the holly paper is by Wild Rose Studio, from their 'Annabelle's Christmas' paper pack

- I found a little snippet of red velvet ribbon (rescued from a Christmas gift bag) and popped that across the card - despite it being velvet the holly pattern could be seen so I put a little strip of red card across before adding the ribbon

- the embroidered brad is by Papermania from their Henbury Lane 'Poinsettia' set

- sentiment is from SU's 'Joyous Celebrations' set, stamped with SU's 'Real Red' then punched out using SU's 'Extra Large Oval' punch

- the corners were die cut from a snippet of 'Real Red' card using a Whimsy corner die, and a pearl popped onto each

This card is for a few challenges:

First of all, it's for Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge - where you must use red and green- I think I stuck to the brief OK?!

It's also for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for April, where anything goes

And last, but by no means least, it's for Rudolph Day over at Sarn's. You have until the end of the month to join in the fun!

I did the draw for the Tim Holtz bird cage die at 11:30 last night, and the name out of the hat was Diane. Sooooo funny, at first Len thought I'd won the die back! Can you drop me an email Diane with your snail mail address and I'll post the die off to you ASAP. My email is di_wray@hotmail.com

Di
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