I wasn't going to go this time. I had a choice of attending an OnStage Local Stampin' Up! Event in either Edmonton or Vancouver, Washington. Edmonton is about 12 hours of driving in winter conditions, Vancouver, Washington is about 8 hours. Both sounded daunting. I suppose I could
have flown, but with the Canadian dollar so far below par, it was an investment I didn't want to make for only a one day event. And no one from our team was attending in Washington! Then, on the last day of registration, I got an encouraging email from Stampin' Up! and I registered at the last minute!
So, tomorrow I head down to Vancouver, Washington with my trooper of a hubby, who has a nasty cold, but will share the driving with me anyway.
Of course, Stampin' Up! events mean swap cards and I was at a bit of a loss this year. There is only a month and a half left for the Holiday Catalogue and we have not yet seen the new Occasions Catalogue. (Although I will get a copy at OnStage and be able to do a pre-preorder from it!I will share with you as soon as I am allowed to do so.) So, I wondered what to feature in my swaps so that they would be the most useful. I guessed that most people would be using Christmas designs right now, so I opted for two holiday designs, but both a little unorthodox.
This one was a good way to use up some of my lesser used designs from the Home for Christmas Designer Series Paper. It's rustic and outdoorsy with a vintage Christmas look complete with sponging. I fussy cut all the snowshoes and crossed them as can see, popping them up on Stampin' Dimensionals. The image and sentiment are from Winter Wishes, one of my favourite sets from the Holiday Catalogue. With the Kraft Corrugated Paper and Naturals Chevron Ribbon, this would be a great masculine card and if you changed the DSP for a non-Christmas design, you could use it for any occasion. A versatile design!
I thought I would try and do a design using a product from the Annual Catalogue as well. I saw An Open Heart, and it struck me all of a sudden that the leafy branch looked a lot like mistletoe and even has the white berries. And since you get kissed beneath the mistletoe at Christmas, "Live with an open heart." seemed like an appropriate sentiment. I stamped the images in Mossy Meadow first, then stamped another in Versamark, embossed it with Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder and fussy cut part of it out. I added it on top of the other branches and added a bow using the Red Striped Ribbon.
This was also my first time using my Christmas Greetings Thinlits dies and I better get going and use them more, to get my money's worth out of them. The Gold Foil "merry" at the bottom adds a little more pizzazz to the card.
Thanks for stopping by! Join me tomorrow for another As You See It Challenge.
Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today!
Product List
