Hello!  I hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start.

Today brings a new stash challenge at 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown, and Ruth has come up with a fun idea for it.  In honor of “wedding season” starting up, she’s asking us to use something old, something new, something borrowed, and/or something blue.  At least two of those categories must be covered in your card this week.

The “something new” was pretty easy for me.  I have been admiring a certain set of fancy circle Sizzix dies since I saw Ruth use them on a few of her cards last fall.  I finally found them online at a very good price, so I ordered them last week.  Today’s card is the first project I’ve used them on.  The only difficult thing about “something blue” was choosing which shade of blue to use.  “Something borrowed” was harder.  I haven’t been creating with other local stampers for a long time, and I don’t have any items that I’ve borrowed from anyone.  I was looking back at Ruth’s cards to get some inspiration, and then the proverbial light bulb clicked on – I could “borrow” one of Ruth’s card ideas by making a card modeled after one of hers.  I chose this one but added a panel and changed up the color scheme.  I also didn’t have a lacy ribbon, so I used some twill tape that I’ve had for probably a good 6 or 7 years and did my ribbon treatment differently than Ruth’s.  Ta-da: there was my “something old”.   (My white embossing powder is even older than the twill, now that I think about it.  The stamp set that the sentiment is from is also pretty old.)  I also used pearls rather than rhinestones to add a bit of shimmery shine to the card. The bits of blue added to the white embossed snowflake are some of the “leftovers” punched out from the circle die.  I also added some of the punched out pieces to the back side of the white snowflake and the blue center portion, to act as cardstock shims and raise those elements, giving dimension to the card.  The blue ribbon and blue cardstock match better in real life than they do in the photo.

Ruth always decorates the inside of her cards, so in tribute to her, I added a strip of cardstock stamped with snowflakes and bordered with blue cardstock to the inside of the card.  It wasn’t easy getting the card to bend and stand up for the photo, but I managed it anyway, LOL.

Because this card is a 5.5″ square, it doesn’t fit the requested size requirement for the cards Operation Write Home collects to send our military troops overseas so that they may write home to their loved ones.  However, it’ll work for me to write a note of encouragement and support to one of our heroes and send as an “Any Hero” note.

So, what will you create with items from your crafting stash?  If you need more ideas, go check out the 52{C}CT blog and see what the rest of the design team has made.  Then link your card at the challenge site by 1:00 p.m. Eastern time Friday, May 30.  We’d love to see how you interpret this challenge!

Supplies:
Stamps: Festive Flurry, Wishes Awash (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Kraft, Marina Mist (SU); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Marina Mist, White Craft (SU)
Other: For the Record 2, Documented die (Sizzix); half pearls (KaiserCraft); twill tape (SU); French Blue grosgrain ribbon (Really Reasonable Ribbon); white embossing powder (Stampendous)