Snowmen ....

.... Good evening! We've almost come to the end of our long holiday weekend - it's been so nice to spend time with Jonathan and Kat. Mind, we still did our own things too! I think I've mentioned that I need quite a few Christmas cards as I send lots to family and friends in the UK. Well, I counted up the number I've made so far - 88 - and that's despite being on a Christmas card challenge!!! Go figure. Anyway I'm still about 30 short! So I spent yesterday making cards. I made a set of 8 cards featuring my all-time favourite snowman:

Stamps: Funstamps - Scribble Snowman; Clearly Besotted - All Occasion Sentiments; Penny Black - Majestic; Uniko - Most Wonderful
Inks: Stampin' Up! - Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Wisteria Wonder, Emerald Envy, Peekaboo Peach, Melon Mambo, Cajun Craze, Pacific Point, Green Galore, Lucky Limeade, Smoky Slate; Distress Archival - Black Soot
Dies: Die-namics - Oval Stax #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; SU Card - Daffodil Delight, Wisteria Wonder, Emerald Envy, Peekaboo Peach, Melon Mambo, Cajun Craze, Pacific Point; Bazill Card - Lime Crush; Wink of Stella - Clear; Zig Real Brushes; Tim Holtz Water Colour Card; Sizzix/SU EF - Softly Falling

I had so much fun making this set of cards. I stamped the snowman on water colour card and used my Zig Real Brushes to add colour. Once dry I fussy cut them out, edged them with a black marker and added sparkle to all the snow areas with a clear Wink of Stella brush. I made cards to match the colour on the hats and scarves and then stamped the tree to match. Next I cut white card slightly smaller than the base and used my MISTI to stamp the sentiment at the bottom. I cut out an oval on each card and then embossed some snow falling. I adhered each panel directly to the card and then used dimensional gel to adhere the snowmen. On the inside of each I cut a white panel on which I stamped a Christmas greeting in the matching ink and added a little snowman peeking in at the bottom. Here's the inside of the yellow card:

I'm submitting the yellow card to this week's Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#221 where it's ANYTHING GOES. I'm submitting the blue card to Cardz 4 Guyz - C4G#147 where they want to see snowmen (and where I got the idea) and also to Inkspirational - INK#122 where the cue word is CHILL. Finally, I'm submitting the lilac one to TIME OUT Challenge - TOC#71 where they want Christmas cards with the option of glitter/sparkle - and I think you can see the sparkle best on this card.

Edited to add: I've been wandering around blogland and found a new challenge - well, new to me! It's called A Gem of a Challenge - AGOC#183  and this week's challenge is SNOWMEN/WOMEN - I'm going to add my card there too - it's a perfect fit! :)

 Here's a look at them all together - they look fab - bright and colourful!

I now have 96 cards with this set - still a few more to make. I think I'll be concentrating on some quick and easy cards. Last posting date from the States to the UK is Thursday 8th December - so I'd better get my skates on!! That's all for this evening.

ASM - Photo Inspiration ...

....  Good evening! It's time for our new challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More!  This week it's our Photo Inspiration challenge.  You must follow the photo provided, but you can take anything from the photo - colour, theme, image - whatever inspires you.  Just tell us what you did!  Here's my take on the photo:

Stamps: Penny Black - Majestic; Stamper's Anonymous - Tim Holtz's Crazy Talk; Uniko - Stunning Snowflakes; Chocolate Baroque - Snowflakes (don't remember the name of the set)
Inks: Versamark; Versafine - Onyx Black; Memento - London Fog
Dies: Lil Inkers - Stitched Rectangles #5, Dual Stitched Rectangles #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Stampin' Up! Card - Real Red; Martha Stewart - Red Glitter; Silver Embossing Powder

I think it's fairly obvious what my inspiration is - the snowflakes, the red and the branch.  I die cut a red panel and adhered it flat to the card.  On the white panel (also die cut) I stamped the tree and sentiment in black.  I then added a flurry of snowflakes, stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with silver powder.  Then I added glue to the berries on the tree and added lots of red glitter.  On the inside I cut a mat layer of red card.  On the white panel I stamped a simple greeting and added some more snowflakes.

I took a close up of the glitter on the tree as you can't really see just how pretty the little red berries are in the bit photo above:

I'm submitting this card to the current challenges at Inkspirational - INK#95 where the colour challenge is that anything goes with silver, and at The Paper Players - PP#270 - the team want black and white, and either silver or gold with one other colour.

Our sponsor for this week's challenge is Kylie's business - Happy Little Stampers, and the winner of the challenge will receive a $15 gift certificate.

Don't forget to visit our blog to check out what the rest of the team have made.  That's all for now, don't forget to have fun with the challenge - we look forward to seeing what you make!