... and that's why it's called a "challenge"

This week’s challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown really had me stumped all week.  It’s a color challenge, and the required colors are purple, silver and white.

For several days, I was at a loss as to what to make for this challenge.  Even though my family does have some purple Christmas ornaments, purple isn’t a color that comes to my mind when I think of Christmas colors.  I’m such a realist, I had a hard time with the idea of doing something purple with trees, although I suppose sometimes at twilight the darkness does seem more purple than black.  I considered doing something with ornaments or presents, but nothing along those lines came together very well in my brain.  I thought about doing something with a poinsettia image, but then I would have wanted to add green leaves, and green wasn’t included in the challenge colors.  I tried a few things with my purple Gelatos but didn’t like the results at all.  It wasn’t until this week that I realized I have very few snowflake and star stamps that I really like.  I tussled with the question of whether to do direct stamping or paper piecing.

Finally I decided to go against my tendencies toward realism and try something with this snowman image.  I had made a similar card in shades of blue several years ago, and I thought I might be able to pull it off with purple.  And I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the final result.  The image and the sentiment are heat embossed.  The ribbon does match the cardstock better in real life than the camera shows. I’ll be adding a white liner inside the card before I send it to Operation Write Home.

So whew – I finally got something made for this week’s challenge!  I’ll still keep my ideas for ornaments and presents in my head for future challenges. Maybe those concepts will come together better later.

Supplies:
Stamps: A Beautiful Season (Stampin’ Up); Happy Everything (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White (SU)
Ink: Silver (Colorbox)
Other: Silver Pearl embossing powder (PSX); silver mini brads (Making Memories); Eggplant grosgrain ribbon (SU)