'Tis The Holly Season

Hello everyone,

Today's Christmas In July post is another pretty holly card.

The card base is Stampin' Up Handsome Hunter.  The printed paper is Echo Park Very Merry Christmas layered on Real Red.  The image is Stamps Happen Inc. Tara Reed Swirl of Holly stamped in Versafine Onyx Black on Whisper White, painted with a variety of LuminArte Twinkling H20s and layered on more Real Red.  The sentiment is Stampendous Script Greetings also stamped in Versafine Onyx Black on Whisper White.  The brad is American Crafts.

This is another great piece of holly paper.  The card base is a little on the darker side but works well with the image which I'd stamped and painted years ago.  This sentiment is perfect for the long retired Stampin' Up tag punch.  It's feels great to use up some of these older stamped images.  Especially when the results are so wonderful.

I hope you enjoy this card and come back to SPI again soon.

Gisèle

Christmas Kindness

Hello everyone,

When I read today's One Layer Wednesday challenge there was no way I wasn't going to participate. Susan Raihala has learned that a group of women who make cards for prisoners in the North Dakota State Penitentiary to send to their loved ones has been inspired by the one layer cards crafted for the weekly challenges. Recently a warden has placed strict limits on what can be used on the cards - no layers, no metal, no gemstones, no pearls, limited glitter. So today's challenge is to make a one layer Christmas card following the rules put forward by the North Dakota State Penitentiary.

The vanilla card base is from Recollections. The image is Stamps Happen, Inc. Swirl of Holly. It is stamped in Color Box gold, heat embossed with Close To My Heart gold embossing powder and coloured with Sakura Gelly Roll Gold Shadow pens. The sentiment is Cornish Heritage Farms Christmas Expressions.

I love this card. Yes, it is yet another holly image but, I've got the stamps so I may as well use them. I also can't help using the Gold Shadow pens over and over as the effect is just amazing. The simplicity of this card is perfect. It is wonderfully clean and simple and certainly elegant.

I hope you enjoy this card and come back to SPI again soon.

Gisèle