The holly and the ivy ....

... Chrissie and Mandi have come up with a fabulous challenge for this week's Less is More theme - LIM46.  They want us to use the theme of music - musical instruments, manuscripts or simply base your card on a song title.  I've done both!

In my stash I have some lovely stamps from Elusive Images that have only seen ink a few times, but they are perfect for this theme.  Some holly, some ivy - the carol is one of my favourites - The Holly and the Ivy.

I stamped the image onto plain paper and heat embossed with clear powder, this gives an image that's really easy to paint.  I used Label 8 to cut out the image and then painted the holly, ivy, berries and ribbon with Twinkling H2Os - they have a fabulous shimmer, which is actually visible in this picture!  To get the red mat I put the die I used to cut out the image onto some red mirri card, taped it in place and then used my scalpel to cut around the outside of the die - giving a mat that is just a bit bigger than the image.  I stamped the line of sheet music onto white card, embossed it and then layered it onto some more red mirri.  Finally, I added the sentiment - positioning it with my trusty stamp-a-ma-jig!

Stamps:  Elusive Images - The Holly and Ivy; Waltzingmouse - Musical Backgrounds
Inks:  Versafine - Onyx Black
Spellbinders:  Labels Eight (S5-019) #3
Accessories:  Twinkling H2Os; Clear embossing powder, Red mirri and card from stash

Jonathan's home!!!  Yippee!!!  Our journey to the airport was a bit hairy!  It was dry when we left the house, but it started to hail by the time we got to the M56 and visibility wasn't good.  I slowed down and kept my distance, but there were several accidents on the motorway.  At the airport I turned up at the wrong terminal - silly me.  To be fair, it was the right terminal when Kathryn and I arrived home two weeks ago, but KLM switched terminals last week - and I hadn't checked.  Our journey home wasn't much better - it was still hailing like mad and one of the accidents (on the other side) caused the motorway to be closed for several hours.  I don't know what caused the accident, but some people don't put on their headlights or slow down - and I don't understand that!

Jonathan's had a nap this afternoon, but he's got absolutely no idea what time of day it is :)  I know that feeling :)  Still, that's all for now - I'm off to watch the final of Strictly Come Dancing - I've got no idea who's going to win this year, but I'd sort of like Chelsea to win.  Kathryn wants Aliona (Matt) to win!!  See you all tomorrow.