Hello friends and welcome to Saturday! First an apology if you’d tried to read this post when it was first published a few hours ago – I’d set it up with the photos, intending to add the text last night, but then after a long day demonstrating online for Clarity Social TV followed by the excitement of The Traitors final I forgot! Put it down to my advancing years… Anyway, here I am with all the information now.

Our new challenge theme at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown is to make an easel card and I went with this simple design using the Bijou Winter Entwined Wreath stamps, which I also showed on yesterday morning’s show (watch it here)

Starting with a 4.5″ square of stencil card I stamped the wreath outline in ‘library green’ Archival ink, then added one of the leafy accent stamps from the set around the frame to fill it in. I shaded the images with red & green Polychromo pencils before plating a few more berries around them with the little dotty stamp and ‘red geranium’ Archival ink.

Turning to the base, I cut a 5×7″ piece of white card and simple glued a couple of strips of Amazonia designer paper, one on each side. Paul pointed out of the show that you could also do this one one of the designer card toppers, but I was trying to use up scraps from my folder (plus you’d waste a load of the designer card underneath the base where you couldn’t see it!)

To finish, I took a 5×5 card blank and scored the front side across the centre so it would bend for my easel. I popped a mount of Amazonia companion paper behind my topper and attached it to the bottom part of the scored card. I then simply glued the base of the 5×5 card onto my bottom piece. Finally, I stamped a couple of the Art Deco sentiments, one inside the wreath and the second on a piece of scrap card, which I mounted on a bit of the Amazonia designer paper plus a couple more bits of scrap card and added it to the base to act as the stopper for the easel.

And the added bonus of this is that it folds flat for posting! Happy days!

So simple and so effective! Do come on over to 52CCT and share your versions of Christmas easel cards with us. meanwhile, I’m going to share this one with a couple of other challenges – Just Add Ink have got a seasonal theme, and it’s always ‘anything Christmas goes’ at Peace on Earth