Leftovers - Jingle Belles Style

The Jingle Belle challenge for the last two weeks has been to use your scraps or leftovers.  Well, heaven knows I have plenty of those!  My only problem was finding the opportunity to get up into the stamp cave and get cooking.  So last night, I vowed to get in there and not come out until I had done something productive.  

I was tempted to straighten up first, but that would be like having dessert before dinner right?  So I grabbed my scrap tray and scooped out some possibilities.  Their were no set recipes to follow, just a bit of a hash and here are the results. 

This started with the card background having already been stamped with the snowflakes and embossed.  It was originally discarded because I had taken some glitter paint and added some dots here and there and subsequently decided I didn't like them.  Then I found that little owl already colored, his hat matching the color of the background.  Yea, he would look good floating around with those snowflakes.  There was a pile of the glitter stars on my work table from a previous project that I have been using, and I decided to use them to add to the sparkles in the background.  I took another scrap of glitter paper and die cut the sentiment.

In the tray I found both the wreath and the cardinal on the card below only needed to be cut out.  So I did and then grabbed a neutral card base.  That looked a little too plain for me so I fished around in my washy tapes and found this one with the gold hearts on it to go with the gold berries on the wreath.  It begged for something in the opposite corner so I used some scrap gold foil paper to die cut Merry Christmas.  Pretty pleased with this one too!

This last one was kind of fun using scraps of recycled things.  The tree was originally on a gift bag, the snowpeople were cut from some wrapping paper, the silver glitter jingle bell garland was just sitting in the tray, waiting to be used, and the pompom garland actually came to me on a package from my closest Jingle Belle friend last year.  I'm loving how these colors came together.

And you know what?  They really didn't take that long to put together.  I bet I could probably get a lot more cards out of that scrap tray.  (And I just might have too!)

Won't you join me and click here to see what other concoctions the Jingle Belles have cooked up!

Jingle Belles - Bring Us Some Figgy Pudding

Figgy pudding, or gingerbread, or cookies, or candy, or cocktails - anything gastronomically holiday.  I did a quick scan of my stamps to see what I might have that would be appropriate and I mean quick, because I kind of just checked what was out in the open and didn't dive into the "Christmas" stamp shelf.  Then I remembered the tray of holiday-related items that I had put aside.  I throw in the discards from my previous cards like ribbon scraps and diecuts that didn't get used and then I also have some stuff in there that was at one time package decorations. 

But after sorting through it, it was the Christmas Ale label that I really wanted to use this time.

I remember that my brother-in-law had brought a couple of bottles of that ale to our house a few years ago at Christmas and I painstakingly removed the paper label in hopes of using it for something someday.  The snowman is from a packet of tags that I cut out of a magazine many years ago.  The ribbon and velvet leaves were some of those things that were on packages in another life.  I gently pulled the plastic veins off the back of the leaves so they would be easier to work with on this card. And there happened to be some holiday candy buttons in there which I just could not pass up.

Since I had gone through that tray and found some other card-worthy things, I made another simpler one (not theme related).  That's a gold foil oval behind the angel button.  (These colors are not really looking that good on my computer, but IRL it's much better.) 

Now it's time to feast (pun intended) my eyes on what the other Jingle Belles have been up to this week.  Click here to join me.  

Jingle Belles - Getting Sketchy

I've been very remiss with keeping up with the Jingle Belles challenges these last few months and believe me, HWNSNBP has noticed and has asked me for a count of my finished cards a couple of times already.  I told him I'm not counting, but I know that right now I am short on cards.  Luckily there are still several weeks to do some catching up.  And this challenge is all about the sketch!

This one as a matter of fact.

Pretty sketch - don't you think?  Anyhoo, this is what I came up with.  Okay, so black isn't a usual choice for a holiday card, but here is the dilemma I was working around.  Stampers out there - have you ever liked a stamp and then bought it and then wonder "how the heck am I going to color this"? Especially if you're lured to the beauty of the stamp by a catalog picture, or a sample you've seen and it's done in color.  Or maybe you see it and picture in your head how you would color it never giving full attention to the method.  Well, this stamp (from Picture Show Stamps on Etsy) is one of those and it just happened to be on my work table almost begging me to use it for this sketch.  I guess I could have done it in any single color, but I went for the black embossing because I also had this pack of SU paper in black and white (and red and pink) graphic designs on my work space.  I thought the wavy piece could be done in red like a scarf.  And then I went a little further with the scarf thing and used some baker's twine and crocheted a little scarf and added a much larger tassel to it trying not to sway too far from the original sketch.

 

I added some die cut glitter paper stars and "be merry" die cut from silver paper.  HWNSNBP says it's a top 5 card for the year, but I think he was just happy that I managed to get another Christmas card done. 

 

So let me get over to the Jingle Belles and see what other sketchy loveliness is there. 

October Card Catch-Up

My son and daughter-in-law celebrated their 3rd anniversary earlier this month.  They have recently moved into their new home and she has decorated it beautifully.  She is partial to green and they both love the beach so I always try to incorporate those things in my cards to them.  

I totally missed one of my favorite Jingle Belle challenges - Pink Christmas.  I had my Silhouette out and did manage to cut this card, but then I put it aside and forgot to finish it.  Then the last day I would have been able to post it I managed to finish it, but it was an hour past the cut-off time.  Oh well, at least I got it done.  HWNSNBP has already pointed out to me that he doesn't think I have enough Christmas cards stashed away yet and shhhhhhhh, don't tell him, I don't.  But not to worry there's still time.

I've taken a picture of it with a battery-operated tealight behind the front.  It looks even prettier with the room lights dimmed and you can see all three of the trees "lit".  I suppose this will have to be one of those cards that has to be hand-delivered with an explanation.  

And lastly, a birthday card for one of my Table 7 compatriots.  I wasn't too sure at first about that green banner - the color I mean - but IRL it looks great and I kind of like the way the banners from the dsp look like they are an added fringe to the bottom of the green banner.  It may be just a little late in the year for butterflies, but I think for birthday cards anything goes.

Jingle Belles - Catching Up - Inspiration Photo and Vintage

Having actually done some Fishmas baking recently it was serendipitous to have a Christmas cookie photo inspiration.  Although my Fishmas cookies were not decorated like those in the picture.  Maybe next time I'll try that if I can find a fish cookie cutter.  But I digress............. I took some of the colors of the photo inspiration and some of the shapes and there was a baking theme in there too that came through with my Tasha Tudor stamp (even though they've baked and are decorating a gingerbread house).  I have some lovely paper gifted to me by one of the Jingle Belles that had trees in just the right colors, and a MS border punch that contained gingerbread cookies.  Found one of those SU corduroy buttons and some thick baker's twine (hey, there's another tie in to the baking theme, ha!).

I think it needs a little message somewhere.... maybe in small type.... as yet to be determined.

But you can see the photo below - don't you just love those colors? (Secret - I'm actually planning on a lighter shade of that blue for the stamp cave if we ever get around to it! With red accents too!)

So now let me do a little catching up. I don't know why this didn't get posted last week. I came home from work last Monday juiced about the Try a New Technique challenge that I saw on Splitcoast posted by Sabrina - Cathedral Window Patchwork.  Her instructions were so spot on and the theme for the Jingle Belle challenge was vintage or retro.  I thought about how vintage quilts are and wanted to meld the two together.  Came home and managed to get the card done fairly quickly and even photographed it and set up this post and then Tuesday came, and then Wednesday came, and then Thursday I saw in my feed the post from Jingle Belles highlighting the cards of the challenge and was immediately deflated because I had obviously forgotten all about posting my card there and in the Splitcoast gallery.  Oh well - it's not the end of the world because I can still post it here.

I found this non-directional, small print paper, my punches (round and square), a new Sizzix die, and the poinsettia die and voila!  (Well, it really wasn't magical, but it didn't take that long either.)  

I don't know if you can see the gold pencil and shimmer paint highlights on the edges of the holly leaves and also on the corners of the folded circles that were a little ragged after folding.  And let me just say that if this were a real quilt that I was making I would have been a whole lot more careful about how I folded the circles so that the stripes on the back matched.  

Well let me mosey on over to the Jingle Belles to see what other wonderful creations the ladies have come up with this fortnight.  Click here to see for yourself.

Jingle SILVER Belles

As you might have guessed from the title the challenge this time is to use silver or bells or both silver and bells.  I have silver and bells.  No stamping whatsoever on this baby.  Just a pine branch die, the jingle bell die, paper, washi tape, stick on jewels, and a nice red ribbon.  HWNSNBP seems to think that I will have requests for this card. 

So sorry for the less than stellar picture.  I really should have changed that background, but I was trying to show the reflection of the light on the silver. 

Won't you please join me over at the Jingle Belles blog to see the other Silvery/Bell cards that have been created. 

It's a Marriage - Jingle Belles and Summer of Color Collide

I think I totally forgot to do my Jingle Belles card for the last challenge two weeks ago.  And something luckily stirred me to get this done last night - the Summer of Color Challenge colors for this week actually.  I think I managed to marry the two challenges together but let's just check and see.  

The Jingle Belles said NO DESIGNER PAPER. (That's not hard for me, it's usually the opposite that hangs me up.)  And the SOC colors for this week are Red, Red, and Metallic.  My first reaction to those colors of course was holiday.  Though I've been adding to my little color journal for this SOC challenge (and I still might do something else) I really felt compelled to do a Christmas card and to apply it to my lovely Jingle Belles.

You see no designer paper involved (even the die-cut joy was from a recycled gift card holder envelope which I hope doesn't count as such), and the design was embossed in gold EP.  I've had that background stamp for a while now and I don't think I ever used it before so I was equally glad to have made good use of it.

The shades of red are Cherry Cobbler and Riding Hood Red and please believe me when I tell you that this is really much better looking IRL!

Do you think I could get away with doing this same card but on let's say - two shades of blue and gold (or silver), or two shades of purple and metallic?  Or are blue and purple poinsettias out of the realm of possiblity?  

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....... let me think on that a little.

Jingle Belles - Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Yikes - I almost missed this one!  The challenge is to use snow - in any form on our card.

And I apologize for the blurry picture.  It was quickly done with my cell phone camera which doesn't allow for much editing either.

Anyhoo, the sentiment is a negative surrounded by all those embossed snowflakes which have not, apparently, fallen from the sky yet, although there is snow already on the ground.  I punched the trees from various shades of green and then glued them together to fit across the width of the card base. Then I had to wait a bit for the glue to dry because I wanted to emboss those letters and I didn't want to have to fight with cleaning off any stray EP that might have stuck to any errant glue.  

Then the whole row of trees was popped up - hmmm, you can actually see the shadows they cast in this picture.  

Okay, let me hurry on over to the Jingle Belles blog and see what other snowy delights await my perusal.  Won't you join me!

Jingle Belles - We Wish You a Merry Sketch-mas Sketching Around the Christmas Tree

I had two ideas for this sketch which would have kept me up to the count with my cards but I only got one done so far ......

I used three different embossing folders for my background panel and added a dividing line of this cool woven ribbon I found in my ribbon stash.  And then I added this die cut poinsettia.  I curled the petals to give it some height and dimension.  The center is a trimmed down star with some liquid paper dots.  

I love this die, actually I love most of my dies and the only thing that I find a drawback about using them is the little paper "hairs" that you get when you punch out all the pieces.  The more openings in the die, the hairier it gets!  I usually sit there with an Exacto knife and scrape the openings and then turn the piece over and take a stiff stencil brush to the back of it to whisk away any stragglers.

Okay the, time to get this posted over at the Jingle Belles blog and to see what the other lovely ladies have created for this wonderful sketch (btw - great sketch Steph!).

Jingle Belles - Let There Be Peace on EARTH (Day) II

We're still recycling over at the Jingle Belles blog this week.  The top portion of this card comes from the paper that was covering a box of Godiva chocolates I received for Christmas.  The bow was trimmed from a Starbuck's gift card holder.  

The sparkles are embedded in the paper and have sort of a holographic quality to them.  I put this on a base of Poppy Parade cardstock and embossed the sentiment in gold EP. 

The band of jewels is new however.  I picked that up at the Dollar Tree recently.  I don't usually go for yellow, but for some reason I grabbed the yellow one and I'm glad I did.

I think it goes well with the orangy-redness of the paper.  

So let's revisit the Jingle Belles and see what other recycling beauties have been added this week. And don't be afraid to jump in and try this challenge.  Have you any packing paper, tissue paper, rescued ribbons, cardboard, buttons, bottle caps?  I'm sure you've got some good "stuff" you can repurpose into a Christmas cards to celebrate Earth Day.

Jingle Belles - Let There Be Peace on EARTH (day)

What are you going to do with that?  I often get that question if I'm seen stuffing what some might consider trash into my bag.  And then when I take it home and stash it away it just seems to multiply. 

So when I was picked to be a guest designer for this month's Jingle Belles challenge I was hoping that it might have something to do with recycling so I could jump into - check that, no jumping yet - delve into one of my many boxes of rescued discards and put it to good use. 

My goal on this card was to use as much "rescued" materials as possible and I think I did pretty good. The only recently purchased item is the crocheted lace.

My card base is actually white Bristol board to give it some strength for the weight of the items added to the front.  I covered that with a layer of Bravo Burgundy cardstock (retired) and then used part of a printed paper bag.  The corrugated cardboard under the ornament was part of some packaging and I just swiped some white gesso on it to brighten it up a bit.  The green ribbon is recycled from one of those giftbox stacks from the holidays with a swatch of the crocheted lace over it.  

The ornament - the form of the ornament is actually one of those gold cardboard cake/pie/pastry bases that I meticulously clean off whenever HWNSNBP treats me to one of those little fruit tarts from Wegman's.  I took a scrap of aluminum foil and die cut a circle that would cover the circle of the cardboard and then embossed it.  I just scrunched the foil over the edges adding just a little bit of tacky glue to keep it in place.  The fuzzy stuff is part of one of those brass pot scrubby thingy's which I never used to scrub pots. I had a few of them that I used in a candle arrangement that went south. And I just wrapped a gold foil twist tie around the brass as a "ribbon" treatment.  

The star is die cut from a fast food coffee sleeve, again with some gesso and mounted on the burgundy cardstock.  

HWNSNBP was amazed that I was done with this card relatively quickly the other night, and he couldn't believe all the "stuff" that I recycled, but he's also aware that I only put a dent in what I have up in the stamp cave.  

Well, there's always next week.......

So now I'm heading over to the Jingle Belles blog to see what else has been rescued from the landfills here and abroad!  Click here to join me.  

Jingle Belles - Fa-La-La-La-La Encore

Week two of our musical challenge.  This card was directly inspired by the sentiment - coming from Hark the Herald Angels Sing...........Glory to the Newborn King.

And while I did not struggle so much with the design, boy was it ever difficult to photograph this card.  The base is actually a beautiful shade of purple and all the embossing is done in silver with the silver glitter paper as the backmost  panel which looks pink to me in the picture, but trust me, it's silver.  I added some Illuminate ink around the edges of the stamped panel and then some glitter pen around that.  It just doesn't want to show it's pretty side tonight.  

Okay, time to visit the Jingle Belles and see what I've missed.  You can come too.  Click here.

Jingle Belles - Fa-La-La-La-La

This challenge was to make a card that was influenced by Christmas music (did the title give it away?).  And the card that I made has two possible inspirations......

Too easy?  Give up?  

Jingle Bells or Silver Bells - it fits both since I didn't have any traditional bells and had to use those jingle bell die cuts.  

The card base is Brushed Silver and the white panel is embossed with a music folder.  I raided my ribbon scrap bag for some of the ribbons and found the braided one in my stash of not yet used stuff. I originally had silver cord in mind to use for hanging the bells but it was elastic cord and a little too unwieldy for trying to glue in straight lines so I opted for some strips of silver textured scrapbook paper - sliced thin but not as thin as salami.  The music paper is from a paper pack I was gifted for Christmas (thank you again L) and the greenery were die cuts.  I originally thought I was going to add a red bow, but then decided on the silver ribbon to match the strips I had added to that wide ribbon under the circle. Much better choice I think.

Hmmm, now I have to give some thought about what I can do for the next week.

Take a look over here at the Jingle Belles blog to see what other lovely creations have been posted.

Jingle Belles - Another EMBOSS-ible Mission

Recap - the Jingle Belles challenge for this fortnight was to using embossing of any kind.  I've got two kinds of embossing on this card - wet and dry.  The brick panel is an embossing folder that I sponged light gray ink on.  I cut away some of the excess white paper to see the gray card base.

The Wondrous Wreath stamp was stamped in Old Olive and Mossy Meadow and the berries were embossed in gold EP.  

I usually don't ask HWNSNBP for his opinion before I'm done with my cards but this time I did.  I asked whether the "JOY" should go inside the center of the wreath or in the lower right corner and I took his suggestion.  

Now I'm off to see the other embossed beauties at the Jingle Belles blog.  

Jingle Belles - Mission EMBOSS-ible

I am old enough to remember the original Mission Impossible TV series and have had this theme song running through my head since I saw the title of this challenge (thank you Lauren!)

So now maybe you will too!   Pretty catchy, huh!  Even Kirby liked it.

Okay, back to my card.  I dry embossed the background panel with Sizzix Poinsettia embossing folder.  I used a VersaMark pen on the edges of that panel and added some gold embossing powder.

Then I stamped the images from Watercolor Christmas in VersaMark ink and also embossed them with the gold ep.  Then I fussy cut the images out.  I actually stamped each image twice and only used the center of the second flower popped up to give the flower some more dimension.

I found some cool lace in the Target $ bin last weekend which I used here.  I think the only thing, well, two things I would have/should have done was find some gold beads for the center of the flower and add a sentiment on the upper left-hand corner but I can always do that later.  

You can see the sparkle a little better in the picture below.  I only used Very Vanilla cardstock on the whole card popping the embossed panel up on the backing which was kind of necessary as the lace folded over the edge was a little bulky.  

I'll be back with a second card before the two-week deadline.  Your mission.....should you decide to accept it, is to leave a comment on the Jingle Belles blog (and/or here).  "As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions." This post will self-destruct in five seconds.  Good luck.

Jingle Belles Round 2 - I'm Dreaming of a Bright Christmas

Remember the inspiration photo from last week (see below) - this is my second card for this Jingle Belle Challenge.

I saw those scrolls on the placemat and wanted to get them represented on this card.  I found some cool pink paper at Mike's this weekend and some lime green glitter paper also found it's way into my basket.  The argyle paper is from a paper pack and I've had those ribbons stashed away.

I used the glittered dots from the ribbon for the ornaments on the tree but first I put a dab of glue on the back of them to glue them to a piece of white paper so I could cut them out.  I had tried a punch but it would not go through the fabric of the ribbon, so I thought attaching them to the paper first would make them easier to cut and I was right. 

I used a Rich Razzleberry card base for this card as I did for last week's.  I like the unexpected surprise of opening an envelope expecting a Christmas card and seeing such wonderful non-traditional colors.  

My little personal celebration came today when I went into the supply room at work and found a box of donated book covers that just so happen to be printed on kraft paper.  Since they were donated and not purchased with school money I took a few of them and I'm going to try to make one of those origami cubes that I did out of the post-it notes with them.  The paper seems sturdy enough, yet thin enough to fold without bulk.  You'll see my triumph or failure in the future.  

Jingle Belles - A Very Vibrant Christmas Inspiration

Yowzers, that is vibrant but so pretty.  I think we actually have a wreath that I put together with some felt ornaments from the Christmas Tree Shop using these colors.  Sometimes it's so nice to get away from the traditional colors.  

Scouring my stash of papers, I was looking for those that had some of the hues in the picture above.  I found purple and pink cardstock, aqua dsp, and some green-mixed-with-blue glitter paper, as well as some ribbons in pink, green and aqua that had a silver stripe, so I decided to add the silver element.  

The silver paper is textured and I used it for both the trees and the die cut sentiment.  

I was concerned that the deer die might not fully cut through that glitter paper so I used a metal shim under it and had no problem.

I think you might be able to see from the picture below that I added Crystal Effects to the moon to give that some shine too which wasn't that easy because I was impatient and decided to do it after the trees were glued down instead of before and waiting for it to dry.  Thinking about it afterwards, since the moon was punched out of the dsp and the pink was behind the opening, I probably could just as well have inset a piece of window sheet/clear plastic to get the shine.  

Admittedly I wasn't too thrilled with this when I finished it two nights ago, but it looks much better in the daylight and the colors really appeal to HWNSNBP which could be good or bad because he's, um, color-challenged.  

I was having a hard time coming up with a second card for this challenge but I just noticed something in the inspiration picture that has.......given me some inspiration.  I'll be back with another one soon.

In the meantime, here is the link to the Jingle Belles blog where you can see all the other wonderful creations.  Click here.

Jingle Belles and Snow Day Hijinks

HWNSNBP left for a basketball game the other day (he's a basketball ref in addition to his regular day job) and he left the TV tuned to The Rifleman.  He had been watching it while I was making a pot of vegetable soup.  So what has this to do with my card?  Well, the episode was about a Chinese father and son who came to town and were being tormented by some of the locals.  Of course The Rifleman and his son befriended them and helped them to get their Chinese laundry business going. As I was listening to the TV from the other room, I was wondering how the Chinese got to be so good at laundering and of course the phrase "no ticky, no washi" came to mind which made me think of washi tape, which reminded me that this week's prompt for the Jingle Belle Challenge was to use washi tape (or any other form of decorative tape) on our cards.  Some would call that synchronous thinking - how we tie things together.  In my case it spurred me in the direction of the stamp cave and got my wheels spinning in the direction of my collection of washi tape and some new dies that I have not yet used.  

I went with a gold and silver pallet on some Whisper White cs.  The card base is a very yellow gold paper that is quite sturdy.  The Laurel Wreath was cut from metallic silver paper and the deer was cut from textured gold.  I'm kind of happy with the way this turned out and I have another idea brewing for next week.  

So as I was finishing up with the washi tape, I kept glancing over the the card that I had started for my son's birthday but then abandoned.  When I was working on it the other day it just wasn't coming together so I went with the simpler (and I already said "lame") card if only to make sure that he received it for his birthday.  But this one was calling to me to finish.  I already had the splats and the stenciled part done and I had the strip of navy also.  I decided to put some feathers on it in the colors of the ink that I used - Bermuda Bay and Marina Mist - and then I thought it should have a bird. But not just any bird.  It would have to be a peacock with those colors and lo and behold (who says that?), I just happened to have a peacock stamp.  So I stamped it in Marina Mist and then colored it with just about every other blue, blue/green marker that I could put my hands on and then fussy cut it out.  I took a navy marker and added the accent lines to the stenciled motifs.  Now I'm thinking this isn't as lame as the other one and I think that this will make a nice get well card for a co-worker.  

And now here's where the hijinks come in.  (Doesn't that look strange with those three tittles in a row?  Go ahead and giggle, I did!)  

We had a snow day yesterday (I might have mentioned that before) and instead of baking chocolate chip cookies like I would usually do (sorry Peach!) I had prepared myself to do a little Pinterest- inspired project.  I wanted to make a Post-It Origami Icosahedron.  Why?  Why not?  I had purchased some colorful post-it notepads at the dollar store and had saved the instructions to my Pinterest page so I got to folding.

I folded 10 units of each color and then started puzzling them together to make..........................

It's about the size of a large orange.  The colors are really off in that last picture, but I think you can definitely see that it all fit together.  And now it joins the rubber band ball on my desk at work!

Think of all the calories I saved by not making those cookies!

Jingle Belles - Shaping Up for the New Year

I wonder that you could definitely guess what our challenge was this fortnight?  Aha, I knew you could do it.  A card by any other shape than a square or a rectangle to be exact.  

I got my nested star dies last fall with every intention of making one of these dimensional star cards but those good intentions got a little sidelined.  Thankfully, this was the perfect challenge to give it a try.  I found a good video tutorial here at DDStamps.  Believe me, it is not as involved as it might appear to be.  

My star base is Marina Mist and I used white glitter paper for my 3-D star portion.  The center is embossed with Pewter EP.  So what would be better than making one of these stars?

Making two!

These cards are a little bit smaller being around 4".  But they're so cute!

And speaking of shaping up and being a little smaller, I'm going to brag just a wee bit and let you in on a little milestone I've achieved.  Since mid-September I have lost 30 pounds!  I'm counting Weight Watcher points and my back rehab has me focused on moving more (recumbent bike daily and physical therapy home program).  I can't wait until the weather starts being more cooperative so I can get out and walk without worrying about snow or ice.  I still have a bigger goal in mind but I am very pleased with where I am right now.  And I have a wonderful friend who is doing the same and we're each others' cheerleaders which has helped tremendously to stay on track.

So, let's go check out the other "shapely" ladies' creations at the Jingle Belle blog.

Jingle Belles - Bring in the New

I've fallen behind again and I know it's basically because I returned to work last week and I still have a few more PT sessions which are taking up more of my once "free" recuperative time.  But I did manage to get some of my new things out to make a card for this challenge.

A very good Jingle Belle blogging friend gifted me some delicious MME Christmas paper - aren't those colors smashing - and I had this Memory Box die that had not been unwrapped yet. 

I glued the die cut to some Wild Wasabi cs and trimmed around the edges.  I recut some of the areas that had punch outs in both Cherry Cobbler (like the card base) and Baja Breeze (like I watercolored the bird) and then inlayed the punchouts.   On the snowflakes I added some glitter gel pen to make them a little sparkly.  I'm thinking the bird looks a little sad and I may need to replace him with a die cut one or at least to highlight his beak in some better way.  

I've got to get myself on a better schedule because I really want to keep up with one card a week.  Last year I fell behind and if I hadn't been home healing from my back surgery, December would have been a mess which is exactly what it's not supposed to be by doing this challenge.  So, with that in mind, I am going to do another card this week using some more "new" shtuff (you know I have more don't you!) and post it here, I just won't make the cut-off for the JB Blog, but that's okay too.

So, let's mosey on over there to see what other new things all the other ladies have accumulated!