A Christmas Card Times Two

Are ya'll ready for Christmas?
No?!
Me neither!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Christmas and all it stands for, but my goodness - it's still Summer! It was 95 degrees here yesterday and I'm still getting wonderful tomatoes off my vines. If that doesn't spell Summer, then I don't know what does! Well, maybe B-E-A-C-H; but hey, I'm not headed there THIS weekend - I don't have any desire to meet Earl!

So, even though I'm not ready for Christmas, when you make all your own Christmas Cards and when you hold classes and parties to TEACH others to make their own Christmas Cards, you have to start early - know what I mean?
Fortunately one of the perks of being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is the ability to participate in card swaps. Each person makes one of the same card for all the participants in each swap and then we trade them, resulting in a plethora of fabulous ideas!
My friend Tara hosts a great quarterly swap and she was kind enough to invite me to join - so today I'm sharing my card with you!

I used the new Hostess Stamp Set Peaceful Season from the Holiday Mini Catalog to do all the stamping on this card. The focal point was cut out with the Big Shot and the Ovals Die and I stamped the greeting with Versamark and heat embossed it with Gold Embossing Powder.
Can you see the shadow of the Dove? I stamped it with Crumb Cake ink (stamped off 2x) right over the embossed words. Love this effect!

Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler and Very Vanilla combined are one of my favorite color combinations and they are perfect for Christmas cards! I used the same colors on both cards and even though I ran out of the Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding for the bows, I was able to substitute Old Olive Satin Ribbon on a few of the swaps and it looked just as pretty!

Do you like the little Pearls Jewels accents? I think they make the focal point look like a Christmas ornament on the card. And the best part is that you get 150 pearls in a package so they go a long, long way!

So, there you go - this one was really easy-peasy, but looks oh, so elegant. I'm considering this card (or a version of it) for my Christmas in September Class this month. So if you are registered for it, let me know what you think, ok?

If you aren't registered, you can still purchase everything you need to make one of your own. Just visit my Stampin' Up! website and Online Store! Remember, not only will you get your purchases shipped right to your door, you will get a special Thank You card in the mail from me AND your name goes in the drawing for the Perfect Product of the Month!

Have a great Friday everyone!
~~Robin

Subtle Sympathy Card

Well, hi there everyone! Yesterday was the first day of Spring Break here and my plan was to spend all day in the studio stamping ahead of schedule for later this week, but did that happen? NOOO, I spent most of the day cleaning up after my sick doggie and fighting with Blogger trying to post this card I did manage to make. Apparently Blogger was having trouble yesterday which would explain why I couldn't comment on my fellow Blogger's Challenge girls cards from last Friday. We also had to go to Costco (never a fun trip) to get Emma's passport photo taken so we can go stand in line for 3 hours tomorrow in DC at the passport office - or she doesn't go on the cruise with us. And, at 10 pm last night, Mark was trying to help me film my first video tutorial for the ol' blog here. All I can say is that we should have started earlier! hahaha!
Ah well, one really good thing did happen yesterday - Mark ordered our new gazebo for the deck and it's going to be delivered on Monday! Doin' the happy dance! :)

More good news too, my Dad came home from the hospital Sunday night! He still needs the surgery, but they are waiting up to 8 weeks to do it so his heart will get stronger, but since he had started taking food by mouth on Saturday, they thought he would rest better at home! Definitely a Praise God kind of Day! Thanks again for all the prayers sent our way!

Today's card was inspired by three things - the Saturday Sketch Challenge at Stamping 411, the Color Combination Challenge at Just Add Ink and the Late Night Stampers Sympathy card challenge. Here is my card that meets all three challenges:

I saw this color combo on another blog I visit and was intrigued by it since these are colors I rarely work with together - especially the Cameo Coral. But I was really happy with how the final project came together, soft, earthy and subtle.

Here is a close up of the masked focal point image:

I stamped the cross from Refuge and Strength first, then masked it with a post it note mask, stamping over it with the daffodil from Abundant Hope in Blush Blossom ink.
The cardstock layers are Very Vanilla, Blush Blossom, Vellum Cardstock, Cameo Coral, Close to Cocoa and Kraft.
Here's a close up of the greeting:

I used Cameo Coral to stamp the greeting from Teeny Tiny wishes, adding a piece of daffodil to the left side of the greeting stamped in more Blush Blossom. All the cardstock layers including the greeting were sponged with Blush Blossom ink for a subtle shading effect. I used Kraft Taffeta ribbon for that element and the greeting is popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals. After I finished the card, it still needed something and bling just didn't belong on a sympathy card, so I used my Color Spritzer tool with the Close to Cocoa marker and added the speckles - all better!

So hey, about that video tutorial - ya'll have been asking me about tying those bows I've been doing lately, so THAT is what the video is about. We are going to try and post it tomorrow - it needs editing, trust me! And just go easy on me, ok? It's my first one!

Have a great day everyone and I'll see you tomorrow!
~~Robin