Crafts Galore Encore December 2023

I am approaching the end of 2023 with mixed feelings. The year started off with such promise with two much anticipated weddings in the spring. Then it took a terrible turn with the events of the summer, ending with my beloved brother passing away with hardly any warning. I really don't remember much of autumn. It's all a blur through the tears. Winter is going to be a difficult season with Christmas and birthdays to get through as the family still grieve. But, I'll wear a smile and soldier on through.

Now, the first of my two challenge posts for today ...

Welcome to the last  Crafts Galore Encore Challenge for 2023

Thank you to everyone who joined in with last month's challenge. The winners have been announced on the challenge blog. This is a month long challenge and you can enter up to three times. There is a full list of rules on the challenge blog.

Our theme every month is the popular

"Anything Goes"

and our sponsor this month is:

Gecko Galz

who are offering a very generous prize of a $25 store voucher for our lucky winner.

I have made a set of 6 Christmas cards using three different collections from the Gecko Galz shop. 

The cards are all 6" (15 cm) square. All the coloured card for the mats and layers is from Papermania. The cards were all finished off with ribbon bows and gems.

I was allowed to choose the images and papers from the store for these cards. I chose Altered Christmas Digital Collage Sheets, which has two pages of gorgeous images and tags. 

And Christmas in Nature ATC Set which has six beautiful pages for the backing papers. Plus a sentiment.

A couple of the images on the cards are from another collage set that has since, unfortunately, sold out.

The lovely vintage looking papers on these cards are from the Christmas in Nature ATC set and the tags are from the Altered Christmas set. I fixed the tags to the card with brads so the top one can swivel to reveal the second tag.

The Santa image toppers are, sadly, no longer available.

I printed the gorgeous poinsettia paper from the Christmas in Nature ATC set a few times, and slightly larger, so I could cut out the flowers and decoupage them using foam pads. The Peace on Earth sentiment is also from the ATC set. The sentiment and music sheet on the bird card are from the Altered Christmas set.

The card on the left is made using another wonderful vintage paper from the ATC set and my two favourite tags from the Altered Christmas set. For the card on the right, I printed out the red cardinal a couple of times from the bird paper and decoupaged it with foam pads. I teamed it with a sentiment from the Altered Christmas set. The background is the lovely ribbon and holly paper from the ATC set and I used an off cut  from the bird paper as a panel across the front.

Now please visit the  Crafts Galore Encore challenge blog where you can see the wonderful projects and cards created by our talented team using Gecko Galz images.

Grab some inspiration while you're there and enter your "Anything Goes" creations in this month's challenge.

Thank you everyone for supporting us throughout this year. We hope we have inspired you on your creative journey as much as you have inspired us.

Enjoy a merry festive season, however you celebrate.

I have entered this card set in the following challenges:

https://morgansartworld.blogspot.com/2023/12/morgans-artworld-challenge-12.html