As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve started participating in the 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown challenges this year to help build a supply of Christmas cards to donate to Operation Write Home in the fall. When I learned that the challenge this week was a recipe challenge, my first reaction was “Yay! Recipe challenges are usually fun!”  Then I started reading the recipe “ingredients”.

Patterned paper was the first one listed.  NO problem there – I certainly have plenty of patterned paper around here.  The hard part is choosing one(s) to use!  Then I saw the second item.  Glitter.  Uh oh.  Glitter is a big no-no for Operation Write Home cards because it can be detected by night vision goggles.  If glitter were to come off a card and remain on a military service member’s uniform, it could unwittingly make that person more easily located by hostile forces and put into harm’s way.  However, OWH realizes that there are lots of crafters who do love using the sparkly stuff, so they do allow for small amounts of glitter *IF* it cannot flake off of a card.  So I thought, “OK, I’ll have to use Stickles.”  Whew – potential crisis averted.  The third item on the list wasn’t too bad – decorating the inside of the card.  Usually I leave the insides of my OWH cards plain so the men and women have plenty of space to write home to their loved ones.  But I do like the extra special touch that decorating the inside can give a card.

After a lot of thought and one false start, I finally decided to paper piece a little scene.  The snowy sky, the owl, and the owl’s scarf are all created from patterned papers.  I added some Stickles to the tree branch and the top of the snowy ground to give the impression of sun glistening on them.  I’ve popped up the owl with dimensional adhesive.

Here’s the inside of the card.  I matted a narrow strip of the snowflake print paper to coordinate with the outside of the card.  Then I stamped another owl and added a row of tiny hearts.  I couldn’t get the card to stand up for this photo, so I had to go about the picture from a different angle.

So there it is… patterned paper, with glitter, and the inside of the card is decorated.  Ta-da! Of course, now I have that song playing in my head. LOL  At least that isn’t too bad of a problem to have.  Maybe I’ll listen to my Love Actually soundtrack CD this afternoon to try to get it out.

This card also works for the Winter Wonderland challenge at the Lawnscaping challenge blog.

Thanks for visiting today!

Supplies:
Stamps: Winter Owl (Lawn Fawn); Season of Friendship (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Naturals White, Early Espresso (SU); patterned papers from Aspen Frost and Ambrosia 6″ x 6″ paper pads (Basic Grey)
Ink: Early Espresso (SU)
Other: Star Dust Stickles (Ranger)