Hello!  Can you believe that Christmas will be here in less than 3 months?  Yikes!

If you’ve been playing along with 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, you probably have a good supply of Christmas cards all ready to go for the holiday season.  I prefer that the cards my family sends out to be all the same design, but I’ve been letting my 52{C}CT cards accumulate to donate to Operation Write Home.  I’ll need to send them off in the next week because I also have some fall-themed cards and the deadline for them is quickly approaching!

This week we have a technique challenge at 52{C}CT:  emboss resist.  It’s been a while since I’ve done this technique so it was fun revisiting it.  I used white craft ink for my image.  I made test runs with three different embossing powders and got the best image with the detail clear powder, so that’s the one I used for the card.  I sponged two shades of blue ink to create the sky, and added a bit of light grey ink to try to get a hint of shadow under the trees.  I used Stars & Stamps sketch #16 for the layout, since I didn’t have that sketch marked on my OWH sketch checklist.  A panel of embossed snowflakes adds some extra wintery feel.  I opted to go sentiment-less on this card so it could be an any occasion wintery card.

Ruth, our September challenge hostess at 52{C}CT, should be considered the Queen of Decorating Inside the Card.  🙂  I generally don’t put anything inside the cards I make for OWH because I like to optimize the space for our heroes to write home.  However, I wanted to honor Ruth at least once this month so I added a very simple touch to the inside of today’s card:

Now it’s your turn to visit the 52{C}CT blog and see what the rest of the design team has created this week!  Then pull out your embossing powder and heat tool and glossy paper and show us what you can do with this technique.  Link your card to the challenge site by 1:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, October 4.  We’d love to have you join us!

Thanks for stopping by today!

All supplies are from Stampin’ Up except as noted:
Stamps: Lovely As a Tree
Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Glossy White
Ink: Craft White, Marina Mist, Island Indigo, Smoky Slate
Other: detail clear embossing powder, sponges; Snowflakes embossing folder (Sizzix)