Brilliant! ....

....  Good afternoon!  I can't believe that it's taken me until 6th January to post a card to my blog (I know I had the one for 52CCT, but that was made before Christmas last year) - I had fun with this one.

Stamps: Stampin' Up! - Be the Star
Inks: Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Lil Inkers - Stitched Stars #2, #3 and #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Real Red; Silver Holographic Mirri Card; Copic Markers

I made this card with a couple of challenges in mind.  The first is Less is More - LIM#205 where the team have a colour challenge to use Black, a Metallic and one other colour.  The second is Darnell's Never Before Used Schtuff - NBUS#3 challenge - the theme is Anything Goes, but we have to specific our NBUS. 

My NBUS on this card is my Lil Inker Stitched Stars dies - I love the effect of the faux stitching.  I layered some metallic silver holographic paper behind the stars - just love that shimmer.  I then layered it onto some red card and finished the front with a simple sentiment.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of red card, cut a white panel which I left blank for my own message and added a couple of the die cut stars.  I coloured them with Copic markers.

We are all still feeling somewhat jetlagged after our trip to the UK in December.  It's still a struggle to stay up much later than 9.00pm and we're all waking up silly early - 3.00am for me this morning!!!  I did try to go back to sleep, but it wasn't working.  Hopefully it won't be too long before our body clocks switch back to US time!!

We flew back to the States on New Year's Day - a thrilling way to spend the day!  The plane was absolutely packed and we were unable to sit together.  The upside of this was that I got a window seat - and I love watching take off and landing.  I decided to take the opportunity of taking a few photos - and I'm rather pleased how well they came out.  Here are a few from the trip.

Watching a British Airways plane take off in front of us - you can just see the wing of our plane in the corner of the photo.  It really was dull and grey when we left Heathrow.

This one was taken as we flew over Canada - no idea where it is, but it does look rather spectacular with all the snow and the rivers.

This one was taken on our approach to Detroit Airport.  There are so many lakes in Michigan and while there's no snow in this picture, you can see the ice around the edges of the lakes.  I suspect if I took this photo today the lakes would be totally covered in ice!!

Another on the approach to the airport.  The sun was shining really brightly and I could see the GM building and Downtown Detroit in the distance, along with the casino in Windsor, Canada.  I wasn't sure how it would come out, and I'm really pleased with it.  It does show just how much open land there is in Detroit.

This last one was taken as we arrived at our gate.  It was a really long flight - 8 hours in total - and we were all so pleased to have arrived home.  It was a beautifully bright day, but very cold and no snow!  Sadly I can't say that about today - we had snow last night.  Not as much as in many states, but enough that I had to go out and shovel this morning.  It looks fab outside at the moment - the skies is blue, the sun is shining and the snow is sparkling!  That's all for now - see you tomorrow.