CHRISTMAS GOODIES

Inspired by two different challenges, I set out to bake a batch of gingerbread house cookies for my first Christmas card of the season. I started with the mood board at Inkspirational, while keeping an eye on Challenge #233 at Tic-Tac-Toe. 

This card is uncharacteristically complex for me, but I really had fun with it, trying to get as close as possible to the top left image with the plate of gingerbread cookies on parchment paper and a gold-rimmed plate. 

I started with a red top-folded card base and added a panel of laser-cut white lace from my stash - it was already cut to this size and never used. I constructed a white plate with various dies and blind embossed a piece of gold cardstock with an overall pattern before cutting it into an outline circle for the plate edge. I tore a square of vellum to place over the plate and attached my "cookies". The houses were cut from kraft stock using one of the houses from Alexandra Renke's "Winter Village" die set. I stamped and heat-embossed "powdered sugar "snow" on each of the houses before adding the icing with a white gel pen and then painstakingly adding tiny red hearts to each of them. I slipped a couple of pine boughs under the plate (Spellbinders "Christmas Blooms") and gold embossed the sentiment (PTI "Seasons Greetings") on a scrap of printed Christmas paper and die-cut it with a Stampin' Up tag. The final step was to add gold ribbon and red and white bakers' twine to the tag and attach it to the face of the card. Many, many, many steps, some of which I didn't bother to go into!

These were my inspirations:

        Inkspirational: Inkspirational Challenge #302 - Moodboard (inkspirationalchallenges.blogspot.com)

Added November 25, 2023:

And using the diagonal row - Paper Tearing/Holiday Sentiment/Ribbon:

TTTC233 - Featured Designer Silke - Tic Tac Toe Challenge