How much do I love you?

Is it this much:

or this much:

This was Mr Corgi's Christmas card, although I think it would work as a Valentine as well by changing the papers.  It starts off as a 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 card, then expands to be 11 1/2 inches long (hence the difficulty of getting a good picture). I designed it in the Silhouette Studio using the Print and Cut feature, which made it easy to make sure everything would line up and to get nice straight cut lines.  Then I used steps 6 & 7 from the Splitcoast Slider Tutorial to make the slider portion.  I used small glue dots cut into thirds to hold down the loops of the twine, making sure I had a loop at the slider cut since I thought that would give me a bit more wiggle room for matching up the twine on the slider portion (and it worked!). 

I know there is someone out there who'd like to win a Silhouette vinyl hook just for trying out one of my Silhouette files, so I'm going to extend the giveaway on this post until next Sunday, January 8th.

And now it's time for my final book reviews of 2011:

Book #50:  The Buddha in the Attic is a book Amazon kept recommending for me, so I finally downloaded it from the library.  It is a short book about Japanese women who come to America as mail order brides for Japanese-American men.  It is beautifully written in the first person plural, which I'm not sure would work for a longer book, but is wonderful here. 

Book #51: Next to Love was another Amazon recommendation, but they didn't hit it out of the park with this one.  The story of three friends from WWII to 1965 and how the war affected their lives throughout that time.  I started off being intrigued by the three separate stories, but at the end it had the effect of making me not care about any of them very much at all.  It does have quite a lot of good reviews on Amazon, so maybe I'm just an outlier.

Book #52: Daring Young Men was loaned to us by my dad for the drive home from Thanksgiving.  It is the story of the Berlin Airlift, of which I knew absolutely zero.  The first half was a thrilling tale of these daring young men joining together to keep West Berlin alive, the second half was a not-so-thrilling tale of the politics of keeping it afloat.  If you know a history buff (or are one yourself), I would recommend it.

Book #53: I'd been struggling to find a really, really good book to read over vacation and when the local librarian declared The Language of Flowers as her favorite book of the year, I thought I should give it a try, and it was exactly the book I was looking for.  About a foster child named Victoria, it tells the story of her transition out of foster care at 18, with alternating chapters of her life with her foster mother at 10.  Oh, and also throws in using flowers to communicate.  Recommended!

There you have it, a book for each week of the year, plus one to grow on.  Here's another year of good reads and fun crafts!

Down to the wire...

Is everything checked off your list?  I have about 4 more cards to make, plus some boxes to cut with my Silhouette, plus stalking email tracking to see if my gift to Mr Corgi will make it in time...eek!  But I do have some more cards to share!
First, a couple more Eat Cake Graphics Christmas cards:

Oh, how I love A Scarf for Ferguson!  Especially with that awesome October Afternoon night sky paper and some Waltzingmouse stamps, too.

As much as I love Ferguson, I do have a special love for Zero, and for putting different hats on him.  I almost went with my Santa hat theme, but then these antlers from Paper Smooches just called out to me.  The doghouse with lights is a Silhouette file.  I colored Zero with prismacolor pencils to look like my sister's dog, Molly. 

Can you name the movie?  Hint: It starts with e, ends with f, and has a l in the middle.  When one of my friends mentioned it was one of her favorite Christmas movies, I hopped right on the computer to start making it with some tracing and a pair of elf legs from the Silhouette store. I had to use this sweet candy patterned paper, and the Paper Smooches sentiment was just perfect for it, too.

This last card is the result of Mr Corgi deciding on Sunday afternoon that he did want to send cards to all his coworkers (15 of them).  

Fortunately, I never have to look far for a theme for his cards. I know what you're thinking, how in the world does an airplane qualify for a Christmas image, but if you take a look at our mantle, you'd be surprised to learn that yes, any and all airplanes are suitable for the holidays.  This was a Silhouette file, and I was able to cut out all 15 planes using only two sheets of shimmer paper and a few scraps.  The stamp is from Amuse (I love the shadow font effect), stamped in SU Cherry Cobbler.  And, yes, they were all finished and in the mailbox by Monday morning! 

Now it's time for this elf to get back to work!

Find a theme and stick with it

In making Christmas cards this year, I started getting a little bit carried away with the theme of "put a Santa hat on it!"  Then I went a little crazy during Silhouette's latest online sale and bought all sorts of Christmas images, but it turns out this one was the best deal of all, just for the Merry Christmas circle, which I then paired with my Santa hat obsession.

Exhibit A:  Angry Bird with a Santa hat

Exhibit B: Panda with a Santa hat

Exhibit C: Mickey with a Santa hat

We still have three more days to go, so who knows where Santa's hat will end up next!  (Also, as much as I'm loving this Amuse candy cane paper, it is impossible to take a photo of it without it looking all wonky, so I hope you didn't get any vertigo from today's photos.)

I'm also waaaaay behind on my books read list, aren't I?  Can I reach my goal of 52 for the year?

Book #45: Boomerang by Michael Lewis was the most recent book I've been reading to Ian in the car.  I love most all of Lewis's books and this one was no exception.  I just love his humor and I always feel smarter after I finish.  I'm not saying I'm an expert on the European financial crisis, but I can certainly follow the news better now.  Cheapie alert: after I bought this, I found out that it is a collection of articles Lewis wrote for Vanity Fair.  You can find the links here.

"Book" #45.5: Speaking of longform.org, I just found this site and am loving it.  It has links to some of the more interesting articles and essays on the web, with a super easy "read it later" button to send to your kindle or other electronic reading device.

Book #46: The Passage was recommended by quite a few people, so even though I was a bit put off by the page length (785?  Seriously?), I'm glad I read it and am looking forward to the next book in the series.  It's a vampire apocalypse book, but it's definitely more apocalypse than vampire.  I think he could have edited out about 200 pages in the middle where he introduced about 50 gabillion characters (I certainly hope he doesn't expect me to remember all 50 gabillion when I read the next one), but that's just my opinion.  It also reminded me a lot of the Coen brothers' movie True Grit, if that give you any indication of whether you would like it or not.

Book #47: The Gap Year was a novel told by a mother and daughter about the daughter's last year of high school.  It kept me turning the pages, and I like how Sarah Bird writes, but the end just seemed a little too wrapped up with a bow, if you know what I mean.  I certainly didn't think "oh I have to recommend this one," but I didn't think it should go in the burn bin, either.

Book #48: What Alice Forgot is a breezy novel about a woman who has a concussion and has forgotten the last ten years of her life.  She finds out she's one of those women who goes to the gym for hours a day and is the head of every committee at her children's school, and she's not sure if she likes being that woman.  If you're looking for a quick book to read on the plane, you'd probably enjoy this.

Book #49: The Worst Hard Time I've had this about the Dust Bowl on my "to read" list for about 3 years, so when it was offered a free book in the Amazon Kindle Lending Library, I thought I should probably get around to reading it.  I'm so glad I did--it was absolutely fascinating.  I knew the basics that everyone knows about the Dust Bowl, but I didn't realize just how many times they got knocked down and got back up again.  The writing was superb as well, it felt like your grandfather was telling you the story after dinner one night.

Well, I think I better get to working on some last minute Christmas gifts!  Is everything ready and wrapped at your household?  Or are you just going to give up and go read a good book?

Dear Santa (from the dog)

Now that this doggy has Santa cornered, I wonder what she would like to ask him...

Oh, sweet little doggy, I'm sure you made the "good" list!  I had so much fun paper piecing "Santa's doggy welcome" from Eat Cake Graphics that I may have gone a little overboard, as in, yes, I paper pieced Santa's glasses and doggy's tongue.  The sentiment was cut on shimmery paper (the very definition of "good") using Chowderhead font.  The background paper is "Twas the Night Before Christmas" paper from Amuse.

Speaking of Eat Cake Graphics, my "four month" design team gig there is finally drawing to a close.  Holly has been so laid back and easy to work with.  I'm forever grateful that she chose me to be on her design team, especially since it was my very first one!  ECG images make me so happy, so you certainly haven't seen the last of them.  If you love them too, Holly is looking for a few good stampers for her next team.  See all the details here and don't hesitate to apply--I would love to see one of y'all on there!

In other design team news, I am also stepping down from Market Street Stamps.  This week is the end of my six-month term, and although Angelica was nice enough to invite everyone back, she has such big plans for the next year that I wasn't sure I could keep up.  Angelica and Steph have been such fun to work with and I can't wait to see Market Street really take off to new heights this year!

As much fun as these design teams have been, I'm looking forward to starting the next year with absolutely no commitments but to enjoy my stamping.  I've gotten a little caught up in the howmanycardspublished/designteams/followers race and it's starting to take the joy out of crafting. I'm even debating about giving up blogging for a bit in the new year, but that does seem kind of drastic.  I do hope to have a nice big purge and clean up of my stamping room, then start the new year off with a fresh clean crafting slate.  That would be splendid!

This blog has gone to the dogs!

Well, ok, maybe it's gone to the dogs already, but this weekend there's going to be lots of mangy mutts hanging around...starting with these three chihuahuas from Market Street's Pawprints on our Hearts set:

If you're visiting from my Market Street blog post today, you may have noticed the addition of some hats.  The Santa hat stamp is from Paper Smooches, but it was the perfect fit for those pups!  I even added some Snow Writer for some fluff (and I hate Snow Writer, so the recipient better appreciate that fluff!). 

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you may have noticed the extravagant use of shimmer paper on this card--I used it for the letters, hats, and scarves because I DON'T NEED TO HOARD IT ANYMORE!  meredemaison gave me a good tip on some Hobby Lobby packs, which I finally got around to buying with a coupon (did you know the Hob Lobster is also selling some Echo Park paper packs now?  With a coupon, that's a pretty sweet deal. Make sure you check the scrapbook kits aisle, too, they were hiding some Little Boy and Walk in the Park packs there).  The same night, I went to Michael's and what do I spy?  A DCWV Shimmer Paper Pad!  Yes, I bought that, too.  The Paper Source (Hobby Lobby) one is nice because it has a solid core, but there were some colors in the DCWV I had to have.  Long story short, Christmas came early to Corgi Creations in the form of shimmer paper!

Other tidbits: The scarves are from Market Street's Cool Cats set and are a little snug on the chihuahua, but close enough for me.  The patterned paper is Echo Park and the sentiment is a Silhouette download. 

How are your holiday preparations going?  I think I have almost all of my shopping done, except for Mr Corgi.  Any ideas?

Best Comment Ever + Paper Sparks Challenge

I have been totally remiss in awarding my Official Best Comment of the Year Award, which was not really an award category until I saw Jenny's comment on my post about Maria's birthday card. The card read "Happy 39th* Birthday (*plus shipping and handling).  Here is Jenny's comment:

Totally awesome.  I wish I knew a nine-year-old stamper for whom I could make that birthday card. Jenny, email me your address so I can send you a fabulous prize package!

In other news, I finally got around this weekend to playing in the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge.  Here is the inspiration picture:

And here is my card:

Oh, shiny paper, how I love thee!

I arranged the snowflakes in the Silhouette Studio to mimic the plates, then cut them out of that gorgeous DCWV metallic paper, then layered some Aspire Petalics paper behind it.  I wanted to use Mr Mouse's cheese for that pop of yellow, but it just didn't seem to work.  So instead Mr Mouse (from Santa Paws) is staring up in awe of those huge snowflakes (which, as an added bonus, I have cut out to use on other cards).  I cut Mr Mouse out of grey cardstock, and I love how his tail got a little 3D curl to it while I was cutting it out, don't you?

Market Street Designer Showcase

Due to the Thanksgiving holidays, some of the Market Street Designers were a bit delayed in getting inky with the new releases, so today Market Street is having a Designer Showcase of all the fabulous new sets!  I used two sets, Essential Holiday Elegance and Flurries, to make another quick-and-easy Christmas card.

Could that background be any more gorgeous?  I'm amazed at how well all those intricate snowflakes stamped (I'm also amazed that I'm still waiting for the ink to dry, even after hitting it with the heat gun.).  I stamped the sentiment on a strip of white paper, added some Echo Park Dots and Stripes paper, and a fabulous card was finished in under 15 minutes.

Make sure to check out all the other inspiration at the Market Street blog. Remember, from now until December 7th, all new release stamps are 15% off or you can get 25% off plus free shipping if you order the entire November Bundle, so don't delay!

Market Street Block Party!

Yes, it's time for another Market Street Block Party!

I used the new Prancer and Essential Holiday Elegance sets to make both a clean-and-simple AND quick-and-easy card:

Doesn't Prancer look stunning in silver?  This would be so easy to mass produce for Christmas!

Tomorrow Market Street will showing off all of their new sets, so make sure you check out the blog!

Merry Christmas!

Ok, one last Christmas card!

Now this card did make me see the genius of having a computerized cutting machine, because, yes, I cut all the letters out by hand.  I created the card in Word using WordArt, which makes it handy to play with the layout by moving, resizing, and rotating each word.  The font is Gill Sans.  I printed it directly onto the Echo Park patterned paper in a light grey and cut out using a craft knife and glass mat. I adhered it to another sheet of Echo Park paper using a glue stick.  Hint: an old magazine is great for this-just throw away the page after it gets all gluey!  The heart was punched out and popped up. And then the awesome part...

wait for it....


wait for it....


wait for it....

Heck yeah!!!!  (I couldn't resist adding some festive Picnik lights).  I did the same thing as above: printed, cut out, and adhered.  The corgi is from Eat Cake Graphics, stamped on a piece of felted paper.  Another hint: don't use copics on felted paper!  Pencils work much better.  The hat is from The Cat's Pajama's, stamped on red felted paper with some snow-writer accents (have I mentioned my hatred of the snow writer recently?  It is evil, but looks good).  Another hint: line the back of your felted paper with some clear packing tape before cutting out to make it a bit sturdier.  Here's a corgi close-up:

Merry Christmas to all of you....I hope you get everything you want for Christmas!

(except the corgi is all mine!!)

Harumph.

Is there anything funnier than a disapproving bunny?  Well, perhaps a disapproving cat.

Yup, "Marmie Decides to Leave" from Eat Cake Graphics cracks me up every time!  And such a quick and easy card...stamp Marmie and color with copics.  Stamp ornament from PTI's Tiny Treats: Christmas.  Stamp again on scrap paper, color ornament, cut out and adhere.  Spell out "paw humbug" using The Cat's Pajamas Coolvetica alphabet set (bonus: the "n" can be a "u" so you can stamp the whole phrase at once).  Giggle to yourself the whole time.

And more news to giggle over....we may have a white Christmas here in Alabama!  Wouldn't that be exciting!

Santa's Farm

So I have a certain fondness for farm animals.  Especially farm animals that are doing everything they can to help celebrate Christmas.  Case in point: these guys.

My goodness, I could totally write a post on how many attempts it took to get this card from idea to finished card.  Let's just say I have enough of each animal cut out to make at least two more cards.

The stamp is "All the Animals Stacked Up" from Eat Cake Graphics, stamped on October Afternoon and Stampin' Up patterned paper and heat embossed with black (makes it a bit easier to see on the patterned paper and to cut out).  I stamped the entire image onto Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado and cut it out, leaving a small border.  Almost all of the animals could fit through the small Xyron adhesive runner, which I love to use to adhere paper pieced things.  To get Miss Bessie Cow through, I took out the cartridge from the X and it gave me enough room so she just fit.

I stamped the message (also from ECG) onto some kraft and tried out my new distress ink (fun!).  Then the whole stack was popped up with dimensionals onto some Echo Park Christmas paper (yes, more distress ink practice the edges), bordered with Ripe Avocado and kraft.

I'm just sayin' that the recipient of this card better love it or I'm asking for it back.

Hellllooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

My apologies for such an extended blog break!  You know how the holidays are!  But I finally got some cards made this weekend, so I have lots to show you over the next few days.  First up:

Making a doggie christmas card with new stamps + watching Survivor finale = vacation happiness!

I started with Eat Cake Graphic's A Scarf for Ferguson.  I took some SU Pumpkin Pie paper and crumpled it until it was soft enough to pull apart into two layers.  I then rolled this felted paper through the cuttlebug with just an embossing mat and cardboard shims to flatten out some of the "extra-felted" portions.  I stamped Ferguson on two sheets, and cut out his ear so it would fold up on one.  I layered the second one underneath so you wouldn't see polka dotted paper, and used a small piece of dimensional tape to prop the ear a little.  The scarf I stamped and cut out from some Echo Park paper-I also stamped and cut it out twice so I could have the pattern going opposite ways for a more realistic look.  I fringed the ends and also popped them up on small dimensionals.

The window is from Waltzingmouse's Twas the Night Before Christmas, embossed and cut out from SU Chocolate Chip.  The shutters and sentiment are stamped onto Close to Cocoa and Santa is stamped onto Not Quite Navy, with some stars added with a stardust pen.

The background paper is also Echo Park.  It's a big card--8 1/2 by 5 1/2--but I think Fergie deserves a nice big card, don't you agree?

I hope all your holiday plans are going well...I just sent off gift packages and cards today so all I have left to do is wrap DH's gifts!  It's nice to have almost a whole week to enjoy the tree and lights without present-buying-and-wrapping stress, and hopefully that means some more stamping time, too!  Stay tuned!

Tags, tags, and (you guessed it) tags!

First of all, a much belated thank you to Angela of Paper Cupboard for this ultra-fabulous Thanksgiving card:

I love how Angela has no fear of mixing papers and always comes up with the most creative accents!  I love the little fabric trim, the stickles in the middle of the eyelet border, and the wonderful shimmery glittery accents she added to the wreath berries.  You can read all about it on her blog here.

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted a card!  You know how it is around the holidays (and the end of the semester).  I've been hard at work this week making gifts for my fellow teachers...a set of holiday gift tags.

I try to have fun making the tags, remembering that the point is that they are handmade and each one does not have to be perfect!  I also try to make an eclectic mix, and this year was no different:

Clockwise from top left (you can always click on the pic above to get a bigger view):
Joyeux Noel: Oooh, I love this fun retro look.  The sentiment is from Waltzingmouse, and the snowflakes are from all sorts of different sets (I arrange the stamps, then stick a block over all of them so I can stamp them all at once), embossed with some Zing embossing powder.
Merry Kiss-mas: Used PTI's Tiny Treats: Christmas and Mat Stack 1 die.  I added some white gel pen to the mistletoe.
Deck the Halls: Waltzingmouse Vintage Labels 4 combined with PTI's Tiny Treats.  If you plan cleverly, you can get 13 of these labels from one sheet of paper.
Oh, deer: PTI's Fillable Frames 9 plus Tiny Treats.  I didn't buy the die for this frame, but they were pretty easy to cut out and you can get 24 tags from a sheet!
Merry Christmas: Waltzingmouse stamp, love the vintagey look of PTI's Fine Linen
Is it too late: The Cat's Pajama's stamp, added some white gel pen and stickles accents.
Warm Wishes: Waltzingmouse Vintage Labels 4 combined with PTI's Tiny Treats.
Let it Snow:  PTI's Fillable Frames 9 plus Tiny Treats.  I love the icy look of the Brilliance ink.
Be Merry and Bright: Ah, my absolute favorite and so easy!  Waltzingmouse stamp and sentiment, heat embossed with silver.

I stamped the "to/from" from Fillable Frames 9 on the back of each tag.  Also, in case you were wondering, I used Versafine Satin Red for all of the red ink on the tags--it is such a wonderful red, and I don't know why I always forget about it!

Whew!  Glad that project is checked off!  Now I need to make a few more cards and then start wrapping some presents.  Oh, and I guess make some tags for me to use!  :)

How are you coming along on your Christmas to-do list?

I May Have Addiction Issues.

So, I'm not sure if you've heard but I'm a BIG fan of picnik for playing around with photos (LOVE thier new winterize effect!).  I may have gotten so addicted that I'm actually-gasp!-going to send out photo Christmas cards this year. I know, I know, it's like I've crossed over to the dark side.  But, let me explain:
1) That Addison is a cutie patootie.
2) Especially when you picnik her photo
3) With only about 2 weeks left before I have to mail out cards, and having only about 10 done, there's no way I could get enough done to send out, even if I went completely clean and simple.
4) With the card I picked out from Shutterfly, we will totally win the "best photo card" contest of any mantel!
5) Shutterfly is offering 50 free photo cards in return for blogging about said photo cards.  It's the last day to sign up for the promotion, check it out here.

Plus it's been a while since I sent out photo cards-we sent one out with our engagement photos the December before we got married, and then sent out one with wedding photos the next December.  Both times we ordered from Shutterfly and got so many compliments.  We've been slackers the past couple of years for no real reason, and then I go to check them out this year and-wowza-they have really stepped up their game!

I mean, how cool is this top ten list?

Or I do always love a monogram!

This last one was a very close second to the one I finally chose. I love the aqua mist and red color scheme:

Which one did I choose?  Well, you'll just have to wait and see what shows up in the mailbox!

(ps--I'm in the middle of a tag-making frenzy right now, but I hope to have some new cards to post soon!  Thanks for keeping tuned in!)

Joy!

Arg!  I made this card for last week's Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge, but forgot to post it and link it up before I left for Thanksgiving!  Oh well, at least it's also for Wplus9's Color Cue 10 challenge (I used Hannah Craner's light blue, white, red, and kraft combo), which is still open!

The "Joy" stamp is from Taylored Expressions, colored with copics (B00, BG10, and BG23 for the blue, R22, R24, and R27 for the red). The dotted border is Waltzingmouse, then I cut and embossed using Nestie Labels 4.  The paper is..you guessed it, Echo Park!  Added some red baker's twine and embossed the card base using PTI's text impression plate, and ta-da!

My Christmas card box is getting more and more cards added to it...I hope there'll be enough when I start sending them out!

As I mentioned, I was out of town for Thanksgiving, so I did not get to wish everyone a happy day and let you know how thankful I am for all the inspiration from your blogs and all the warm fuzzies from your comments.  And how thankful I am to have found not only a hobby that I love, but that has some of the most awesomest ^[1] supportive people on the interwebs!

Thank you!!!

^[1] Yes, "most awesomest," because y'all are that awesome.

Quick Sunday Post

Because it's almost time for TAR ^[1] (and of course the required TARcream^[2])!

So these are my three current crafting loves:
1) Echo Park Paper
2) Waltzingmouse
3) Eat Cake Graphics

Put them all together and what do you get....

 Some serious cuteness!  I stamped ECG's "Sophie Willoughby and her letter" onto PTI Vintage Cream and colored with copics. I also stamped her again on a piece of white scrap to cut out and pop up for her letter. I framed her with Waltzingmouses's Vintage Labels 4 stamped with PTI Hibiscus, die cut, and sponged around the edges with Antique Linen Distress Ink.  The "note" was a journal card from Echo Park's Everybody Loves Christmas pack, and the stickers are from the same pack (I know!  Echo Park makes me like stickers! Who am I?).  The background is PTI Simply Chartruese, stamped with PTI Polka Dot Basics II in Ripe Avocado, then bordered with PTI Hibiscus and Scarlet Jewel because I couldn't decide between the two!

Also wanted to send a BIG THANK YOU to Emily Keaton of My Little Slice of Bliss. She gave away blog candy for reaching 5,000 hits and I won!  Just look at the stack of awesomeness that arrived yesterday:

Thanks again, Emily, and thanks for always leaving such lovely comments.  Definitely check out her blog if you haven't already--you're in for a treat!

Ok, TAR is calling my name, so I'm outta here!

^[1] The Amazing Race, aka The Best Reality Show Ever.
^[2] Ice cream consumed while watching TAR.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

You know how sometimes a card makes you happy the whole time you're making it?  This was one of those cards!  I cut out Eat Cake Graphic's Ethan and Oliver snowy saucer fun image, colored with prismacolor pencils  (I did have to ask my DH what color saucers are-he said definitely go for bright red!).  The dp is Echo Park (slight addiction issues), and the bottom layer is PTI Aqua Mist, embossed with Cuttlebug snowflake folder, then inked with white ink.  I added some red twine, and the handwritten tag.  I think I may put "....wish you a Merry Christmas" as the sentiment on the inside.

So I know what you're thinking, aw, this is cute and all, but really, how did it make you happy the entire time you were making it?

Because Ethan and Oliver tilt!

I used this tutorial from Splitcoast and it was really pretty easy.  And fun!

Oh, and another thing that made me happy making this card?  I've been telling Holly that she keeps accidentally putting tails onto dogs that are obviously Corgis (of the Pembroke variety, don't try to get fancy and tell me they're just Cardigan Corgis) and this one has big ears, short legs, and no tail!  Definitely a for-real corgi!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

Brrrr!

Are y'all starting to get some winter weather?  I think we've officially tipped over into winter this weekend, so that certainly got me in the mood to start making some Christmas cards!

Brrrr!!  I feel cold just looking at this card!  I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch and this wonderful Eat Cake Graphic image, "Sarah pulls Nicky and Otto."  Of course the girl has to do all the work while the boy and dog just take in the view!  I used watercolor crayons and SU markers to paint the image with my aquapainter. Here's a close-up:

The green Echo Park DP was cut with Nesties Labels 4 and the sentiment is a K&Co rub-on.  The brown DP is also Echo Park.  I punched two snowflakes, inked them with PTI Chai, added a button and some twine, and attached it to PTI Scarlet Jewel ribbon.  I made this a larger card-5x7-to accomodate the larger image (and because I just found a new stash of 5x7 envelopes in a drawer), and also put the image panel off-center so the lil' doggy could look up at the snowflake.

Now I'm going to go wrap myself up in a blanket to get warm!

Stay tuned for another fun winter card tomorrow!