Jolly Christmas

Happy Monday!

What a great day.  Craig had the day off so after voting (did yOU vote yet??!!!) we went out (at long last) to look for a new couch for the living room.  Yes, the renovations are never ending … to think it all started with Craig wanting a new kitchen counter top.  *sigh*  I'm happy to report we found a lovely char-and-a-half for Koda and me … and a love seat for other people.  Can't wait for them to get here!  After that it was off for a lovely lunch date at Halong Bay, a little hole-in-the-wall I've been wanting to try for some time now  YUM!  I love Vietnamese food and this place was great!  Good prices, LOTS of food and fresh fresh fresh.  No one likes a soggy bean sprout!  We'll definitely go back again!

So here I sit while Craig heads to school to pick up Alicia.  Thought I'd post my newest favourite card (yes - I AM aware I change my favourite as often as I change my socks!).

OH!  Before I get to my lovely card I almost forgot!  Today is the start of a 5 DAY promotion …. all regular prices stamp sets are 15% off until October 23rd!!!  I'm placing an order Friday night at 7:00 pm if there any sets you would like - THIS is the time to get them!  Even better …. if you have over $100 worth of things you like this would be a great time to get the Starter Kit.  You can pick ANY items from ANY current catalogue (and Clearance Rack!!) as part of your kit.  If you pick the discounted stamp sets you can get a LOT of stuff!!  You get at LEAST $155 worth of stuff (much more if you pick the discounted stamp sets!) but you only pay $125 flat (no s/h/gst) and there are no obligation to sell anything or do anything other than enjoy your discounted products.  Seriously,  It's a great deal!  Contact me before 6:00 pm Friday night if you are interested in ordering product or if you would like more information about buying the Starter Kit.

Right!  Back to my card …

I went down to the Craft Cave last night to try to come up with a few more Christmas cards for my upcoming Stamp-a-Stack.  I thought  would take inspiration from a card Rebecca made for BFF a few hours earlier …

I thought she did such a great job!  I wasn't even home when she made it so she came up with it all on her own,  What I really love is that she kept it simple - a strong Designer Paper (from the Cherry On Top designer paper stack) with a large sentiment in top.  Brilliant!  So I started off with her strategy … of course things morphed (as they do …) and this is what I ended up with …

Hmmm - could use a little flash on that one!  Quite pretty in person!

*lol*  now that I see the two cards together I really have to wonder how my mind works some times.  HOW do you go from the large, bold, focal designer paper to a little strip of it and call it the same?  lol. Regardless, I LOVE how tis turned out!  Not my usual clean and simple … more layers than I like for a Stamp-a-Stack but it;s really pretty.

There - that shows the colours a little better … I used the DSP from the Merry Moments stack.  It started as a 1 1/2" x 5 1/4" strip, punched with the banner punch,  I used a 1" x 5" strip of Cherry Cobbler (still my favourite red!) and punched the end.  I used a 3" x 2 3/4" piece of Whisper White and stamped the Jolly Christmas sentiment in the yummy Archival Black and matted it on a 3" x 3 1/4" piece of Old Olive.  I popped the Old Olive on dimensionals.  You can't see it well her but the holly beside the word "holly" was coloured a tad by just adding Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler accents.  The part that REALLY pulls the whole card together, though, is the "jolly" in the middle.  I stamped that part of the sentiment on the same DSP pattern and then cut it out with my paper snips and popped it up on dimensionals.  Yes, "fussy cutting" seems barbaric these days with all our fancy thinlits and framelits.  Alas - sometimes a crafter 's gotta do what a crafter 's gotta do!  Fussy cutting is what I had to do!!!  A single rhinestone on the Cherry Cobbler flag finishes this Bad Boy off.

Love it!  Just goes to show you don't need a lot of image stamps to make a great card - a large sentiment and some patterned paper along with a few layers can be just right for an awesome card!

That's it for now.  Get out and vote .. and have a stampy day!!


Tam