Its unbeleivably spotty

I think I have linked to this song before but you can never have enough Spotty Muldoon in your life.
And today I have a great excuse...
it's polka dot week at Daring Cardmakers.
Vanessa came up with this fabulous dare

Onto to this week's dare, set by me (Vanessa) and I thought we'd have a little break from all things Christmassy. So, for one week only over this festive period, we're having a no-Christmas and no-Winter zone! Its polka-dot week! Lets bring some warmth to our cards with polka dots, but I don't mean spots or dots in a variety of sizes, it has to be specifically polka-dots (i.e. a pattern of dots of equal size, equally spaced). However, you can have whatever colour(s) you choose as long as your card doesn't look cold and wintry!!

I luuuuuuurve spots. Spots and stripes together is even better. (a love I share with Emma at Imagine That). As it happens I had a brand new set of Papertrey Stamps crying out to be used - Polka Dot basics. The card didn't quite turn out as planned but I think I managed to save it!
I used kraft cardstock and rounded the corners then added polka dots to the bottom. The good thing about these stamps is that they are in a double row and come with an extra one dot to fill in the gaps. I embossed with white embossing powder. Then decided to use some distress ink on the bottom area. To be honest I wish I hadn't! Still it looks a bit better now with faux stitching and the dots outlined in black pen. I added some strips of Cosmo Cricket early bird papers. The butterfly is a Cuttlebug die. The dots on there were intially cream so I used a white pen over them then added white gliter with a glue pen. Still didn't look right until I added the Nestie frames. Do you like the bow? I think I have finally cracked it. A properly tied bow. At 44 I have finally got the knack (I've been a two loop girl. Blush. I think because being left handed I have to put it round the wrong way.) Now if I could only bring the bows to the front and the ties to the back...

I decided when I made the layout for Salt that I needed to use up the papers by making the card. Obviously Daring Cardmakers was also on my mind as I ended up with quite a few dots on this one too...
The bird is the other way round as the paper is double sided! She is swiss dot embossed and inked. Lots of foam pads were used to create layers.

And I have realised I may need more Christmas cards so experimented with a frosted acetate one
I can't get it to stay close enough together to really see the back. I think frosted cards probably only want to have detail on the front not the back. The snowflake is a window sticker from a set of 12 from Poundland with some Glamour Dust on the top. I wrote peace with a white sharpie and then did the old glue and glitter routine!

I have Sunday's service to prepare. And need to make sure things are in place for the 2 carol services for the 20th. And really need to do a lot for the service on 3rd January. It is that sort of time of year when I need to juggle lots of things in my head and hope I manage them all. We had the penultimate Advent journal last night at church and actually having that time to reflect and "journal my advent" (only once a week, maybe I'll do it properly next year as a more faith filled Shimelle type thing. Or maybe not!) ha really helped me to prepare my heart for Christmas. I'll share the finished project next week.