Welcome to the new theme at Alphabet Challenge! This time it’s Z for Zodiac, for which the card should be inspired by one of the signs of the Zodiac. I went with Virgo, which had made me think of the ‘madonna window’ die from ClarityCrafts. I don’t know about you, but I always resolve to make Christmas cards throughout the year, so it’s not such a rush in the autumn. Do I manage it…. not very well! Anyway, this gives me another one in the bag ahead of time and I’m goign to be sharing it with Happy Little Stampers Christmas challenge.

The first step was to cut the die into the front of a black 6×6 card blank. I then stamped a very old Clarity sentiment with WOW’s clear ink and heat embossed it with superfine meatallic gold powder.

I trimmed a piece of ‘Antarctica’ designer card to fit on the inside front, put a layer of Clarity’s double sided adhesive sheet on the front of it and then stuck it behind the die cut. This adhesive sheet is super sticky – I’ve taken the photo at an angle so you can see the shine on it.

I wanted to highlight the Madonna with gilding flakes, but started by covering the rest of the adhesive with Perga glitter. I’d normally shake it over the whole piee, but I needed the Madonna to remain sticky so I added the glitted in small portions using a paint brush, working my way round the die cut. I then rubbed the gilding flakes (Pentart M2) over the mother & child to highlight that part, which was when I realised my error! I’d actually covered the lower part of the Madonna with glitter when I hadn’t meant to, so the gilding flakes only stuck to the curved outline of the mother & child.

Despite that, I quite like the effect of just highlighting the curve of Mary & Jesus (and I bet I couldn’t have managed that if I’d been trying to do it deliberately!)

So which of the signs of the Zodiac have inspired you? If you hop over to Alphabet Challenge there are some fab creations from the rest of the design team to help get you started – our Zodiac theme runs until Thursday 30 April. We’d love you to join us!