Gotta Love Card Challenges!

I do love a challenge (or three) and they are just the thing to get the creative mojo moving! I couldn't wait to get into my scrap space today & make a start on some Christmas cards. I've used the fabby American Crafts double sided cardstock - great for decorating cards or for making patterned card blanks. Look out for a fabby offer over on the webshop later in the week!
The first card uses Di Hickman's latest sketch (October #4). This is such an easy design to do & will work for any occasion - just change the papers & sentiment for birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, get wells - anything! Anyway, I machine sewed the panels together, catching the three knotted fibres under the stitching. Don't worry if you can't sew straight (I can't!!) - wobbly stitching is fine but if it really bothers you, either leave it out or draw faux stitches with a black pen. The plain cardstock is the reverse of the patterned ones - I used it to mat the panels & to punch the sentiment square, using this punch. The sentiment is an A Muse stamp & the panel is mounted on foam tape, with a faux bow added to the left. Done!
The second card is based on the Pencil Lines #55a sketch by Gillian Hamilton. I'm loving the midweek sketches as I do most of my challenges over the weekend - which means I almost always miss Pencil Lines! More American Crafts papers but this time I've made the card blank from the cardstock rather than adding panels to a pre-made blank. As you can see, this is a fairly dotty card - so qualifies for the challenge over at Arty Girlz this week too! The arrow is handcut, edged with red fluid chalk ink & then outlined with a black fineliner. The bauble is die cut (Ellison Thick Cuts) & the trim across the middle is a strip of die cut friendly felt. 'Use die cuts' is the challenge over at Caardvarks this week - so this is my second entry for that challenge! Before adding the trim, I used a glue pad & the A Muse Tin Plate background stamp all over the bauble & sprinkled on red ultra fine glitter. The embossed words are by Hot Off The Press & the 'merry christmas' is another A Muse stamp.