Convention Swaps & Sneak Peek: Santa's List

It's Christmas in July!  The sad thing is I've had my preorder from the Holiday Catalog for several weeks and this is the first thing I am sharing on my blog:

Colors: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, and Very Vanilla.  Stamps: Santa's List.  Big Shot: Deco Labels Circle Collection Framelits.  Accessories: Season of Style Designer Series Paper and Neutrals Candy Dots.

This was the first set from the Holiday Catalog I knew I had to have.  And I think it might be my very first Santa stamp ever.  Usually I pick the snowflakes, trees, and snowmen, but there was just something about this Santa and his list that caught my eye.  Maybe it was just that it's a line art stamp that doesn't have to be colored to look cute.  And in case you can't tell, these new Deco Label Framelits are my new favorite shape.  They just layer so well with so many other shapes that we have.

I made this card for a Christmas Card swap at convention.  It's the only swap I joined multiple groups of this year and I was not disappointed in the least.  Fabulous swaps Stampin' Addicts!

The Holiday Catalog goes live tomorrow, so if you haven't received your copy of it yet, please let me know so I can get one to you now. 

Convention Swaps: Flower Shop

I have been saving this card for a long time and I can finally show it to you today.  We made this card at my customer appreciation event over a month ago, but since I was also making it for a convention swap, I didn't want to show it too soon.  Today is the day:

Colors: Primrose Petal, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla.  Stamps: Flower Shop and Really Good Greetings.  Big Shot: Honeycomb Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Deco Label Punch.  Punch: Pansy Punch. Accessories: Pearl Jewels

First of all, the Flower Shop stamp set and the Pansy Punch are available in a discounted bundle.  Woo hoo!!  If you already have it, then you know it can be a little tricky to line up those petals in the punch.  I would highly recommend stamping one first and figuring out which way it goes in the punch before you start stamping a whole bunch of them, only to realize that you actually have to cut them out before you can punch them.  Once you figure out which way the image goes in the punch, you will love how they coordinate perfectly.

Second, I haven't been using last year's In Colors very often.  I loved the ones that just retired (and we kept most of them) and I love the new ones so these have kind of been forgotten.  But Primrose Petal on Vanilla kind of reminded me of Cherry Blossoms with this stamp. To make everything pop on this card, I sponge inked everything.  I know a lot of people find that tedious, but I just love how it makes everything on the card just pop!

I have already mentioned how much I love this sentiment here on my blog.  I firmly believe that everything always turns out OK in the end.  Even if we don't know what that OK will be yet. And sometimes it's really hard when you are in the middle of whatever "it" is to see that.  But hold on, because it will be OK in the end.  I promise.