We Have a Winner!

Actually, we have two!!  Congratulations to Kristi and Rosie, who both got bingo yesterday.  Their prizes are going in the mail this morning, and bingo starts again.  This means it's time to reset your cards: clear off all the marks, change your ink color, make a new copy or whatever you're doing to keep track.  We're starting fresh today.

Today's card is a very traditional Christmas card, but also very fun.  I can't stamp this Santa enough!  And since I was using this week's sketch from Mojo Monday, I also had to use some of my favorite new things: Glimmer Brads for a sparkly pop of red and green, and the Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding for that nice strip of red.

Since I was using new favorites, I also got out some old favorites--the retired hostess set Best Yet, and my large oval punch.  I also used dimensionals to lift Santa and the sentiment off the page.

I hope you like the card, and that you're ready for today's Bingo piece.  It's the reindeer.  This should now be the only space marked on your card...along with the free space, of course.  Good luck!

Cheers!
~Melanie

Stamps: Jolly Old Saint Nick, Best Yet
Ink: Cherry Cobbler
Paper: White Naturals, Cherry Cobbler, Wild Wasabi
Extras: In Color Glimmer Brads, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Large Oval Punch, dimensionals

A Beautiful Fall Challenge

Ah, fall.  Cool, crisp days.  Bright, cheery colors.  Warm, cozy sweaters.  I love this season!  That's why I just had to do this week's challenge over at Pals Paper Arts, PPA64.  The photo the design team chose for this week has all my favorite fall elements--and the expression on the model's face is just how I feel about this time of year.

For my card, I wanted to capture both her cozy sweater and the beautiful falling leaves in the background.  See how they glow?  I replicated the gold and yellow glow by using More Mustard, and then rolling the edges in Old Olive.  The brownish leaves were rolled in Cajun Craze instead of Old Olive.  Though there aren't any in the inspiration picture, bright red leaves are my favorite of the fall, so I got out Poppy Parade and stamped off once before putting it to the card.  Perfect, I thought.  To get the texture of the sweater, out came my Big Shot and the Square Lattice embossing folder.  I mounted this on So Saffron and then Old Olive

Since the image reminded me so much of fun fall days, I think I'll send this card to one of my college friends--we had many wonderful fall days together!  I got out a retired hostess set, Best Yet, for one of my favorite sentiments, but then didn't know what to stamp it on.  So I got my Big Shot out again (why did I put that away?) and the Leaves #2 die.  Note: This is the first die I ever bought, and it still is the one that gets the most use.  I just love it!  I cut a leaf from Poppy Parade, then used Stazon to stamp my sentiment and dimmensionals to pop the falling leaf.

Happy Fall!
~Melanie

Stamps: Day of Gratitude, Best Yet
Ink: More Mustard, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Poppy Parade
Paper: Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Old Olive, Poppy Parade
Extras: Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, Leaves #2 die, dimmensionals