Hello crafty friends. I’m experiencing a bit of cognitive dissonance today because, although I committed to making a Christmas card every week at the beginning of this year, it feels rather bizarre to be sharing one on Easter Saturday! Anyway, here we are with our next challenge at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and it’s a sketch designed by Branka. Now, I have to be honest (even leaving the Easter issue aside), I’ve struggled a bit with this one! I don’t have any banner shaped dies and in the end settled on the Nested Funky Star set, which does pick up the shape at the base of Branka’s sketch.

Having finally made a decision, I cut the frame and the largest & smaller stars from Antarctica companion paper, plus the middle one from white super smooth paper. I then glued the three stars together, using Pritt stick.

Next was to add the twine. I had some silver twine in one of my boxes, so wrapped it round the star twice (securing it on the back with double sided tape) and then tied it in a bow at the side. I’m still in two minds about how this looks (I’m not really a twine & bows sort of person) and the bow was a bit of a fiddle to tie, but I finally managed it! I popped a couple of bits of scrap card onto the back of the star as well, to create a channel for the twine to sit in, so I didn’t have a bump when I came to glue it onto my card.

And that was the next step – gluing the frame and the star onto a 6×6 card blank. I pulled out a couple of the little stars from the Wish Upon a Star set and stamped them in ‘broken china’ Distress Oxide around my die cut, before finishing with one of the Occasions – Merry Christmas sentiments.

I was a lot happier with this design once I’d scattered the stamped stars around it, but I’m still not sure about the twine! Do come on over to 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and put Branka’s sketch to good use – we love to see all the creations in our gallery!

In other news, Clarity have got a great sale over the Easter weekend, with many of their dies on offer at only £3 each (including these nested stars)! Here’s the link to check it all out – so many bargains, but I suspect some of them will be selling out at that price.