Hello crafty friends. It’s Saturday again and time for this week’s Christmas card (and apologies if you read this post when it first published a few hours ago – I originally wrote it last night and somehow it failed to save! I’ve only just discovered that when I came to check something, so have now embarked on a frantic re-write, trying to remember all the witty things I said on the first draft!) Anyway, this week we have a colour palette at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown and I do love non-traditional colours on a seasonal card! I’ve taken it a step further with Timestamp Creations’ Quirky Houses stamp set, which is not strictly Christmas but I think works brilliantly for my snowy scene.

I started on one of Clarity’s 3.5″ squares of premium card and stamped the houses in the centre using ‘shadow grey’ Archival ink. I created a narrow border around the edges with low tack tape and covered the houses & trees by cutting a mask from Clarity’s blank material. I could then lay the hills mask over the top and brush ‘tumbled glass’ Distress Oxide into the sky, which gives the illusion of snowy hills behind the houses.

Removing all the masks I shaded the houses with ‘pink madder lake’ Polychromo pencil (also sticking with the non-trad theme, as it’s from Clarity’s Spring set!), using a light grey for the trees – I kept the colouring a bit scribbly to fit with the style of the houses. I then found a matching mount from the Antarctica companion paper.

I went more ‘on theme’ with a sentiment from the I Am Essentials – Christmas set, also stamped in the ‘shadow grey’ and attached the topper to a 5×5 card blank. I finished it off with white Posca pen highlights, dotting in the snowflakes in the sky and whitening the moon.

So what do you think of my pink winter houses? There’s so many options with this colour palette – check out the rest of the design team ideas on the 52CCT blog and then do come and play along with us! Meanwhile I’m going to share this with a couple of other Christmas challenges – my pink houses pick up the moodboard at Peace on Earth and Merry Little Christmas are always ‘anything goes’.