BLOG CANDY!!

Whooohooo! I've got over a thousand hits on my blog! Thanks everyone for visiting me!

I am pleased to offer my first blog candy. For a chance to win this assortment of Stampin' Up! and non-Stampin' Up! items, I would like you to leave a comment telling me what your favorite family Christmas tradition is and why. I'll draw the winner on Tuesday, Nov. 20th.

Among the loot:

-heavy weight stickers

-In Colour cardstock sample pack with coordinating ribbon

-Stampin' Dimensionals

-technique booklet

-cut and scored note cards and envelopes (very vanilla)

-rub-on transfers

-a couple cute stamps

-assortment of brads, buttons, flowers, and scallop circles.

Happy Birthday to Melanie!

I made this card using the same card base as was used for my Christmas tree card on the previous post. The scalloped window is from Stampin' Up!'s "Accents and Elements" tin of stickers made with heavy weight paper. This one is from the Borders and Blossoms tin which are all in easy to use neutral colours.

I added depth to the card using Stampin' Dimensionals to pop-up the scalloped window. The image is a hostess set (Oh, So Lovely) which I first stamped on Soft Sky textured paper with Blue Bayou ink. Then I stamped the same image on my watercolour paper using Stazon black ink, coloured it with a blender pen and ink pad, and punched it out with a circle punch so it would fit behind my window.

I black embossed my Happy Birthday sentiment (from "It's Your Birthday" stamp set). Embossing adds such a nice finished look to projects. Another technique I often use is tearing my paper as I did with my layers at the bottom of this card.

This card uses River Rock, Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, and Purely Pomegranate.

HIT ME!!

Okay folks, I'm just not getting enough hits on this blog!

Soooooo....I'm going to give away some blog candy, but if you want it, you have to help me get to 1000 hits on my counter!

Seriously, it will be some great blog candy, you won't want to miss it.

Once I hit 1000, I will post what the candy will be and what you'll need to do to win it.

Spread the word about my blogsite and I'll do my best to post something at least once per week for you to look at.

Chistmas Tree

I just love this origami tree that Melanie showed me last year. It adds such beautiful depth to a card. This card was done for my open house. Again, I just love the pomegranate/old olive combo. And doesn't the Bravo Burgandy ribbon look lovely with the Purely Pomegranate paper. I was so excited to discover that colour combination. I used River Rock cardstock for the base and cut the card so that the back was wider than the front. I used old olive and purely pomegranate layered on the front with the 5/8" bravo burgandy grosgrain ribbon. The tree is made with the brocade background designer series paper. The background of the pomegranate paper is stamped using pomegranate ink with the flannel background stamp (a favorite for me at Christmas). The Season's Greetings is from Many Merry Messages stamp set and was heat embossed black. I was so pleased with this one. My husband helped me a bit...I had originally left the pomegranate blank and he suggested to add some sort of subtle background. I wonder if he might be a closet stamper. hehe.

Okay, I'm planning to do some blog candy when I hit 1000 on my counter. Be ready and I will post it properly when the time comes.

I've always loved Old Olive and Real Red for traditional Christmas cards. I was very happy with this card. I think some of my influence came from a friend of mine (you always make such classy cards, Gwen).

Here I used my Print Pattern background stamp with old olive ink on my old olive card stock. I then used a sponge (again with old olive ink) for the shading all around the card base as well as the white cardstock. The stamp is from the level one hostess set, Sidekick Sayings. I used my Stampin' Up! markers to colour the words in real red and old olive, then used my basic black ink pad to ink the tree. After stamping the image, I coloured it with my Stampin' Pastels chalk set using a blender pen as my application tool. I then added the wide grosgrain real red ribbon, adhered the white cardstock to the base with Stampin' Dimensionals. Finally, to balance the card with colour, I added the three real red brads in the top left corner of the card using my handy dandy Stampin' Up! Mat Pack to help me line them up nice and evenly.

My First Shaker Card

A friend of mine gave me some stuffing from inside a pillow. She used it for snow in a shaker card, so I thought I'd try it for myself. After making the shaker portion of my card, I needed to figure out what to do with it. I was a bit bored with my usual card layouts, so I headed off to the Splitcoast Stampers web site and looked at their Card Sketches weekly challenges. I came across challenge #110 and thought I'd give it a try.

I fell in love with the combination of colour on this card; particularly the purely pomegranate with the old olive. They are such a beautiful and rich colour combination, don't you think? I also used soft sky and textured certainly celery which, unfortuneately takes away a little bit from the rich colour, but I still love how it turned out.

So, thank you Splitcoast and thank you Melanie for your inspiration!

And now for something completely different...

This is a slight deviation from stamping, but I did use Stampin' Up! wide old olive grosgrain ribbon.

I was in my garden trying to get some things under control and I began cutting back one of my lavendar bushes. As I was trimming it, I was thoroughly enjoying the scent of the leaves and remaining flowers. I thought "how can I just throw these in the compost bin?" and I decided then that I would do something with them so we could enjoy the scent in our home. I found some old floral wire and began aimlessly bunching and wrapping until I ended up with a wreath. Then with some manipulation and adjustment I managed to make it look pretty good. I did a final wrap with a thin black satin ribbon that I got at Walmart mostly to distract from the wire. Then, of course, I used my SU olive ribbon as an accent.

My husband insisted that we hang it upstairs where we can always enjoy the fragrance! I love bringing the outdoors into my home. Eventually the colour will fade and it will get dusty, but the scent will hold for quite a while, even after it's dried, I think. I'm pretty happy with it for a first attempt at making a natural wreath.