A Trio of Challenges

     This year I have been trying to make my Christmas cards throughout the year and have been participating in both Festive Friday and Merry Monday Christmas challenges.  However, I haven't been doing so well lately as I've been busy making birthday decorations for my granddaughter's birthday in August.  However, I found some time to make a quick Christmas card. I designed my card by using the color scheme from the current  Festive Friday Color Challenge.

  I think these non-traditional colors look so pretty together and will make a great card. I decided to use the sketch from this week's Retrosketches.

 Here's my card.

The pine leaves are embossed in silver along with the sentiment and inside decoration of the ornament. A ribbon and crystal finish off the ornament.   The picture does not do this card justice. It is so pretty IRL.

   I also decided to submit this to Merry Monday's Month long Christmas challenge

   Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek. 

MIM: Double Backgrounds

My nephew has a birthday coming up early next week.  After viewing the MIM "double Backgrounds, I thought I would give this technique a try. It also gave me an opportunity to use one of my newly released stamp sets, "Balloon Bash". I paired it up with BB: Birthday Fun. If the color scheme looks familiar, you might recognize it as one of the Fruits of Summer palettes from the July Blog Hop.

 A close up shot.

    I really liked how this card turned out. The double background is a cool technique. Hopefully, I'll be using it again.  Thank you for stopping by to take a peek.

PTI July Blog Hop

 The 25th of the month is one of my favorite days.  Why? It's PTI's Blog Hop.  I get to see so many beautiful cards made by some of the most creative crafters. The challenge this month is awesome.  One is to create a project using one of the Fruits of Summer color schemes. They were all so yummy! Since I was planning on using Delightful Dahlias Additions, I chose this one:

  I used the smaller dahlia image.

The limeade/new leaf combination was too harsh for me. I still used the two colors for the leaves, but stamped off first on each color creating  lighter shades that seem to complement each other a wee bit better.

  The sentiment is from Mixed Messages stamped onto a tiny tag.  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek. Enjoy the Blog Hop.

    

Celebrating a 9th Anniversary!

 Today is my daughter's 9th wedding anniversary. It doesn't seem like she's been married that long. Thoughts of her wedding day continue to make me smile.My  wish is that God continues to bless her marriage.
This is the CAS card I made.
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The sentiment on the front of the card was computer generated.

The challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp and Show. is to use a small stamp on your project. I stamped a small flower several times using  PTI's Mini Bloom Stamp set.

 Since I am hand delivering the card, I thought this week's Make It Monday was perfect. The Fancy Flourish is embossed with Bridal Embossing Tinsel.  I pretty much stuck with the design on the card. The Mr. & Mrs.as well as the post mark is from Love & Marriage 

  Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Let It Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

     It has been very humid here the past couple of days especially after a soggy Fourth of July weekend, but Christmas in July does conjure some cool thoughts. My card today is being submitted into two challenges:

Festive Friday and Merry Monday.

         

Here's my card:

I  mounted the snowman on some cardstock so one can lift the top to see the inside sentiment.

   I have about 1 1/2 dozen Christmas cards made so far,but. this is  a mere dent. I do enjoy making different cards instead of mass producing one type. However, the down side is it takes me hours just to come up with one idea. Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.