Quilted Christmas

What's great about challenges is that they really make you either try things you've never done before or re-visit stuff you haven't one in a long while. This particular card took me back to one of the first cards I made when I started stamping posted to SCS nearly 11 years ago. I was inspired to re-visit quilt cards by girlgook101's Saturday SCS inspiration challenge to use designer paper and by AJ Bodine (Rutabagapie) and Julie Warner (justwritedesigns), the challenge hostess who chose AJ as the featured stamper for the SCS featured Stamper challenge a couple of Sundays ago. Click here to see the card in AJ's gallery that inspired mine.  Since this week's QKR Stampede challenge is Christmas in July, I'm going to enter this card in that one as well.

I was super impressed with all the details on AJ's card, and I especially loved her quilt block die cut. However, without that die cut there was no way I was going to attempt cutting the pieces for that block by hand. Instead, I decided to go for a simpler design, simpler even than the Annie's Choice block I chose for my card 11 years ago. This time I used the Sarah's Choice quilt block pattern and made things even easier for myself by assembling the star pattern on top of an uncut 4"x4" piece of old olive designer paper. To make things a little more interesting, I pieced the center square on another piece of 2"x2" card stock before adding it to the card. This, along with the woven four square element in the center of the star creates a telescoping layer effect.  I'm not sure if I like this effect, but once I adhered the pieces, it was too late to change my mind.

I kept AJ's two tone blue color scheme, but I added old olive to the mix. Since I didn't have a stamp for the cute little house, I opted to die cut Christmas trees in two different designer papers instead. I hand cut the "snowdrift" layers at the bottom and added some dazzling diamonds to the edges for a bit of sparkle. The top snowdrift layer and the trees are popped up with dimensionals.

I don't usually make cards with so little stamping (just the sentiment, in this case) but it was appropriate for this card. My hubby liked it and asked if I could make 40 more. Um.... no. Way too complicated to be our Christmas card for this year. Still, I had fun making this one.

Recipe (all products Stampin' Up!)

Paper: bashful blue, pacific point, whisper white, Holiday Thyme DSP, Prints/Patterns DSP in bashful blue and pacific point.
Ink: pacific point
Stamps: Warmest Regards
Accessories: Holiday Collection Framelits, dazzling diamonds