Cocoa cards on their way to college ;- )

     Well, the cards have been on their way for a few days now, but my husband believes in sharing and shared his nasty cold virus with me (which may have some home from college in the first place with our son, but he doesn't usually get very sick.) There are 14 cards in total, but only 10 were still here for there photo shoot ;- ) The cards for the guys all use the same pattern paper, while I use a few different pattern papers on the ones for the gals.

     The image is from Bugaboo Digi Stamp and I won it during a blog hop from Cely (Creating in Carolina) back during Christmas in July. I colored it digitally, which sure makes making multiples easy ;- ) and cut them out with the large oval nestability. The pattern papers are all from DCWV Holiday Collection Christmas Stack. The mats are a Bazzil paper from Archiver. The ribbon was scavenged from boxes of Godiva Chocolates over many years ;- ) (Yea! Hubby) I used Viva Decor Pearl Pens, to add the pearl dots, on the sentiment, which is from Hero Arts Big Hugs (stamped with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and clear embossed) and also Sickles on the hearts for the gal cards, but only Stardust pens by Sakura to the hearts on the guy cards. Oh, and of course there is inking! The oval for the sentiment was cut on the Cricut using the Gypsy and Accent Essentials, after making sure the keep proportions was unchecked. A friend came over the first day and helped me cut our all of the images, mats, paper and card bases, so a special shout-out to Diana for her help!!!! Her daughter will get her card this week ;- )

     On the first cards, which went out before I took photos, I used pattern paper on the inside, but realized that the sentiment inside covered so much, that it was a waste, so I then just used more of the Bazzil card stock to mat the sentiment. The fonts in the sentiment are LD Penelope (from Lettering Delights) and Kingthings Christmas (the snowy font, available as a freebie Here or at dafont, but dafont was down for maintenance when I went to link to them.) I had added a post-it to the cocoa, because it required the addition of milk instead of water and I wanted to be sure they noticed that. I embossed a stamp from Inkadinkadoo's Warm Holiday Wishes with silver glitter finish.

     Sorry, about the photo, but the sun came out from behind the clouds and I usually photo after the sun is well past this window, but they needed to get into their envelopes. I created eveloboxes with The Ultimate Crafter's Companion for each of these cards (sorry, I didn't photo them), so there was enough room for them to fit. My son said his college treated his card like a package and sent him an e-mail when it arrived and he had to pick it up from the package person.

     Hope your week is full of inspiration and warm weather. We are expecting great weather here ;- ) Thanks for stopping by and I'd appreciating hearing from you! Your comments mean so much to me. Feel free to ask me any questions too!

Gift and sympathy.

     Sorry, I would have posted sooner, but the coming snow brought me a cluster headache as well >.< The first thing I have to show you is a cupcake holder, that is part of the packaging of a Christmas gift I made for a neighbor. Now we did exchange gifts after Christmas, but not this far after >.<  I just used an SVG freebie from Heather at Images by Heather M. You can find her post with the freebie here. She has some nice freebies on her site. I used SCAL2,  my Expression and K &Company's Peppermint Twist card stock to cut the cupcake holder. I purchased some nice fluffy footie socks and rolled them up and put them in the cupcake holder and in the center, I put a Mary Kay lip sunscreen (my neighbor is taking a trip to Florida, lucky her since we just got 7 inches of snow.) I also included Mary Kay Mint Bliss Lotion for Legs and Feet. This was all wrapped in cellophane that I got at Michaels, which actually came with the tag. This would make a great Valentine gift if made with different card stock and cellophane.

 There is some nice sparkle and gloss on this card stock that didn't show in the photos.

     The same neighbor had also lost her father and was going to have a memorial for him. I told my son she was leaving the next day and I was making a sympathy card for her. He was thinking of the Florida trip and he said, "That requires a sympathy card now?" LOL He knows I miss her when she's gone.
   
     The background was stamped and clear embossed with Hero Arts Flowered Wallpaper. The grey card stock is Core'dinations. The ribbon was something I had pack ratted  repurposed from something I don't remember. I cut the ovals with nestabilities and the the sentiment was done digitally and the font is SNF Infinity. You can Scrap n Fonts here. Infinity is a premium font, which means it has all of the font characters, including all of the symbols. You can get the bundle which includes the bold style as well for $8 right now. (I get nothing for saying this. I just think it's a pretty font.) The butterfly is from Jolee's Boutique Beautiful Butterflies (the one on the inside as well.)

     The inside sentiment was also done digitally. The font here is Harrington. The stamp used is from Hero Arts, with Color Blok ink and the papers are Core'dinations.

   
     I had to go to the Mary Kay Center the other day to pick up some product (yes, I'm a Mary Kay consultant and have been for a very long time.) We took the puppy, now 9 months old, with us, since we only had run in and out errands and we thought he could use a car trip. On our way back we spotted a herd of deer in a neighborhood by our library. Now I'm doing a photo or photos a day from my dogs point of view, so we happened to have the camera with us, so here's what we saw.

 Very interested in the barking dog ;- )

     And here is his self-photo from the day. My son thought it was pretty good, since Shadow doesn't have opposable thumbs ;- )

     Have a great Sunday! Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment before you go.

All with the help of my elves!

     Well, we finished the Christmas card on Thurs. and I finally found a moment to post it :- ) I have to give the credit to my DH elf for cutting the scallop from Recollections paper with the large nestabilities die (as well as scoring and folding all 40 cards, following through on the tree decorating when it stalled and signing all the cards.) My DS elf embossed the snowflakes and corner rounded the sentiment, as well as spraying the image with Crafter's Companion Spray & Sparkle Iridescent glitter varnish (gotta love him ;- ) The image and the sentiment are both from Meljen Designs and were colored in Photoshop. The pattern paper is a digital paper from Bits and Bobs and is part of a free sampler. I'm giving you the direct link to the free sampler I used, but here is a warning: I found the sampler from a direct link and when looking for it, for this post I found that this site does have kits that link to adult content (there is a warning), so you might want to be prepared or just go to the direct link, if you are interested in the paper and the matching embellishments. So you've been warned!

  
     I didn't take a photo of all 40, because there was no place to set them all up ;- ) At this point, I decided to diverge from my usual path, and just stamp on the inside with out adding any other paper (need to be quicker and simpler.) The sentiments are from Clear Dollar Stamps's Christmas Blessings and were embossed with holographic embossing powder. Now here are some stamping tips:
1) You will get ink on your fingers every time you touch the stamp block or stamp pad
2) Ink that doesn't wipe off will always come off on white cardstock when you touch it  >.<
3) you should totally wash your hands with soap & water and wipe the stamps every 4-5 cards (not      really moving fast, but very important!
4) A damp cloth to wipe your fingers with after touching the stamp &/or stamp pad will keep down finger smudges on your cards
5) ink smudges are a naturally occurring phenomenon on cards and only add to the beauty and value of your card (just like those tags on clothes)
6) forget perfectionism or you will never finish ;- )

     Yes, of course, I showed you the best one. I'll be entering this in Stamping With the Dragon's challenge which has anything to do with snow. Thanks for coming by. I hope you and your family have the most Blessed of Christmases. Please leave a comment before you go. I really love to hear from you!

Scaredy Cat plus some links to freebies.

     Today's card features an image from the 4th round of the Digi Freebie Progressive Challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Center. The image is from Design2Delight Digital Stamp by Faith Skrdla. I colored it in PhotoShop. I decided it would be difficult to color the cat black (plus his features would disappear), so I got creative and checked out some free PhotoShop patterns and found some that simulated fur by Obsidian Dawn (find them here). I decided to use Cheetah ;- ) This card is for my husband's sister-in-law's birthday. She really loves halloween and her birthday is near it, so I usually do a halloween themed card. The font on the right is Firecat Medium by David Rakowski. You can get it here as well as a number of other places. The Snoopy is a free dingbat called Snoopy Ding by JBS you can find it here. The final font, at the bottom, is LD Penelope is from Lettering Delights. Just click the affiliate link on my sidebar.
     The sentiment on the right was inked with Black Soot Distress ink. I used a glitter pen on the eyes and mouth of the Snoopy pumpkin (sorry it didn't show up well in the photo >.<) and just had to color Snoopy's ear, eye and nose with a black gel pen. It just offended my Snoopy sensibility to see them orange, hee hee. The bottom sentiment was cut with the small scalloped nestibility. I also added a large black flower from Archiver with 2 buttons in the center tied with twine. Sorry, the photo quality isn't up to par, but my son has my camera. I miss it :-(

Click on photo to enlarge

     There's still time to join the next round of the Progressive Challenge for $1 to get the images. there will be 1 more round after that. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek. Please leave a comment, because they mean a lot to me. Have a inspired day!

Creating the Mystical Unicorn

     Today's card is for a little girl who is turning 5. Her favorite animal is the unicorn, so I decided to make it a shaped card. I used the unicorn from the  Cricut Paper Dolls Dress-Up cart. It's from the page with the pixi, I believe it's the 13th image. You're saying pixi? I know that's what I said, but I was just glad to have a unicorn. (I, too, thought it would be with the princess.) I used my Gypsy to make it a shaped card welding two unicorns (one flipped) with a small rectangle from Accent Essentials. I used pearlized cardstock  from Crafter's Companion, for the base because they have a nice sturdy cardstock (love this stuff) and I thought the pearlized finish made a nice card. I cut another unicorn  from white cardstock (hiding the eye cut - because I was going to use the gem, and some other cuts - I would have the Cricut draw) and before removing the mat (using the Gypsy) selected return to program, selected the parts I wanted drawn, replaced the blade with the Cri-Kits gel pen and selected cut again and added the lines to the unicorn. I re-cut part of the unicorn again using scrap paper with black Core'dinations where the hooves would be cut and stopped it after it cut the hooves. I was going to do the same for the horn with glitter cardstock, but decided to embossed it instead with an embossing pen and Kaleidoscope embossing powder. The mane and tail were embellished with Sparkly Fluff. I added a gem for the eye and the flower is from Creative Charms. The font is from the Storybook cart and welded on the Gypsy.

 Click photo for close-up, to see details

     I used Martha Stewart's circle cutter, to cut the circle, at 1 1/2 inches and embossed it with Divine Swirls.  I then inked it with Studio G chalk ink. The 5 was cut from the Storybook cart and they were popped up. The sentiment was made digitally and the fonts are Happy Birthday in Storybook and LD Farfetched for the rest, which is available from Lettering Delights (see the link on my sidebar - they also have graphics,  and SVG's .)  The hearts are Rain Dots from Cloud9 Design which is a Fiskers brand. and were a bit too peachy, so I colored them a bit with my Copics. The sentiment and it's mat were cut with nestibilities. This was popped up also, but not as high as the circle with the 5.

Click for a closer look.

     What would I do differently? I thought about putting a gold ribbon around the neck of the unicorn. I looked up photos and none of the unicorns had anything around their necks, except some had flowers. I guess you can't rope a unicorn ;- ) While doing this, (and I had suspected and was checking this also, but had already done the hooves) I noticed that none of the unicorns had black hooves (ok 1 or 2 may had), but white or pink ones. At this point, my son said to me, "Mom, unicorns aren't real. You can make them look any way you want!" These are the type of perfectionist details I'm suppose to be recovering from ;-) 

Later, when I was done I thought a dusting of Perfect Pearls over the body might have been a nice touch too. So these are some ideas for another time. I do think she will really like her card.

     Thanks for stopping by. Hope some of you are getting some cooler weather. We finally are. Who would have thought mid-80's would have been cooler ;- ) The front going through took my migraines with it, so good riddance. Please leave a comment. It just takes a moment and I really appreciate knowing you are out there. Have a wonder-filled weekend.

Summer wedding

     If the days are longer, how come there isn't enough time to do all of the summer things I like to do? What about lazy, summer days? They seem to be busy, busy, busy and there always seems to be more that I wanted to get done. Today's card fought with me on design and papers and elements, but finally... I won, ha! I used digital stamps on the front and inside. That was my starting point. I've had the files for awhile, unfortunately the only thing it said was PINweddingcouple. I couldn't find it with a search and I don't know where I got them so, I'm afraid I can't properly give credit for these lovely images. I cut the image with nesties, inked it with Concord Distress ink, added clear glitter gel pen (flower centers and the word LOVE) and matted it with pearlized black Bazzill card stock. All the pattern papers are Basic Grey Wisteria. I took light lavender card stock and stamped it with flower stamps using Perfect Medium and brushed it with pearl Perfect Pearls, to give it some interest (I also added so Perfect Pearls to the oval with the Bride and Groom and gave the plain card stock a slightly pearlized finish - it doesn't really show in the photo). I stamped ribbon from Michaels with Fresh Snow ink from Paper Trey, the sentiment is from Clear Stamps and added flower brads from Recollections topped with black pearls.

Click photo to enlarge

     On the inside, is the second image and more papers from the Wisteria collection. I used Photo Shop to edit both images using replace color to make the image more purple (it was originally greyish-brown). I added the text here as well. I used a new font, for me, called Black Rose. This is the script font that the names are in. It is a bit fancy for the more modern look of the card, but I liked it and wanted to use it anyway ;- ) It is a free font and you can find it by doing an internet search. The other font is Brush Script MT which is a standard font.

Click photo to enlarge

     What would I do differently? I'm probably too close to this one now to answer that >.<  I am going to enjoy the wedding though ;- )

     Thanks so much for stopping by, using up some of your precious summer time. Please leave a comment before you run on to picnicking,  swimming, sailing, smelling the flowers and just enjoying the day with you kids. Your comments do mean a lot to me.

Ladybug, little girl card.

     Today's card is from Cricut's Birthday Bash cart. I made this card for the daughter of a friend and ex-colleague of my husband. I cut the ladybug, base and the number 5, (which comes from the next page of the handbook) on 3 1/4 inches. The pink and green cardstock is Bazzill and the pattern paper is Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby. The ladybug is embossed with swiss dots. I used frosted lace stickles on the black spots and diamond glaze on the antenna tips.

     For the inside, I used the sentiment from the same page as the ladybug. I doodled on it with a green glitter gel pen, to give it some interest and added a gem, from Hero Arts, to one of the i's.

     What would I do differently? I might have made the ladybug smaller. I thought about faux stitching the pink layer, but wasn't sure if I could do it neat enough. Should try that before I glue it down. Maybe texture emboss the inside pink layer, but I don't know.

     I don't know why I think I'm further along than I am after I pick the image I'm going to use and maybe the sentiment. Sometimes, I even have a basic layout in mind, but I seem to forget how long it takes to pick the papers for the pieces, if I'm cutting the image out, decide on embellishments, decide the total color scheme, choose how the sentiment will be displayed and all the other "little"decisions like that (embossing, pens, glitter, ribbon.........).  Fortunately, this card isn't needed until the end of the month, but I have others I put aside because I thought I knew what I was doing with this one, it would be quick, ha. It always takes longer than I thought. I need to hunt for supplies for 2 of the others, for the basic idea rattling around in my head, that will of course take 10X longer than I anticipate ;- )

     Thanks for checking out my card and my random thoughts. Please, leave me a comment if you've got a moment. I really appreciate them. Have a blessed day!

Graduation season, too!

     Aaarragh! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted.  It's been crazy. We've picked up my son from college. He survived his freshman year! Yahooo! I've been lunching and visiting with friends with whom I've needed to catch up. Had to work on photos for the bulletin board honoring the confirmands at our Church (after doing the board totally for Good Friday and then totally over again for Easter, it needed to be re-done with the items I made to honor them). I am responsible for the board with the help of my tall, long-armed husband.

     At the confirmation, (it was split into 2 ceremonies this year- long story) my husband takes the photos and then I am responsible for editing them. I then,  put them onto a disk and each family receives one. So, this has all kept me very busy.
     I started this graduation card and kept working on it in small bits. It's not very detailed, but I would decide what I would do and then get to that one thing the next day. It was so disjointed, but I really like this easel card. There is no sentiment yet, because I haven't decided which graduate is getting this one. I have 6 total to do and I think only 2 may look like this one.  The rose is from the Walk In My Garden cart, done in her school colors. The oval and scalloped oval were done with nesties and I can't remember which cart the graduation cap was from. It was left over from some favor boxes, I made for my son's graduation last year. If you are interested, just leave a note and I will check the file in Design Studio and see which cart it's from.  The paper is from Paper Studio's Graduation Paper pack.

     I used a Perfect medium pen and Perfect Pearls in, (I believe) Sunflower, to accent the rose. I did the same with green Perfect Pearls on the leaves and stem. (Click the photo to see a larger image.) I used a white opaque pen on the word "grad".
     What would I do differently? I've thought about it a lot, since this card was done so helter skelter. I considered outlining the word "grad" with black gel pen, but my hand is not that steady. You could use a different outline method on the flower, such as stickles. I like the clean and uncluttered look of this card though. What do you think?
     Thanks for stopping by and spending some of your precious time on my blog. Please leave a comment. It is very rewarding to me, to know that you were here. Have a Blessed week.

Wedding time of year.

     Today's card is a wedding card. Our friend's son is getting married. I used pattern paper that I had picked up at Hobby Lobby from Paper Studio. The stamps were Inkadinkado Spring mini assortment from JoAnn's (I think, either that or Michael's). The scalloped oval was made with nesties. I used a  Icy White Viva Decor Pearl Pen to make the embellishment from the birds to the heart.  I'm not sure why the embossing wasn't coming out very well. The embossing on the card, isn't the only ones I did. I made many attempts to get these. I re-package my embossing powder into different containers, so I'm not sure which gold metallic powder this is, because I couldn't locate the original container.

     On the inside, I used a stamp from Inkadinkado (Wedding/Anniversary set) and some stickers on my digital sentiment. The font is LDWedding from Lettering Delights.

     What would I do differently. Well, I meant to tip the sentiment on the front, but I should have tipped it more, because it just looks crooked. I wish the the embossing turned out better. What type of embossing powder do you like, for metallic embossing?

     While I was out in my yard today, I was greeted with this.

    Happy little volunteer flowers, peeking at me from near my patio. I only put potted flowers here, but some snuck out and have come up again ;- ) What a nice surprise!

     Oh, I want to add the Jacilyn Dashwood is having a  candy give-away on her blog. Click here to go there.

     Thanks for stopping by and looking at what I created today. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think. It really means a lot to me, to know you were here. I hope your day will have a happy surprise in it as well. Have a great one!

Card for a friend.

     Today's card is for a friend who had foot surgery. Her son and mine became best friends in middle school and she was one of my son's teachers (part of the parochial school experience.) Her son is one of the college students to whom I send cards. This stamp set is part of the Honey POP sets that you can use the honey comb tissue paper with, though I didn't use the tissue paper cut-out here, because I was going to include a longer message and didn't want a pop-up. The images and the sentiment are all from the Carrot Bunny HoneyPOP Clear Set and you can find them on line at InkyAntics.com  The paper is Summer Song by My Mind's Eye. I really like how this turned out. I would think it was someone else's card, except the ribbon is crocked ;- ) When the Amish make a quilt, they always have a mistake in it, because they believe only God is perfect. I think this is a great way to create ;- ),  esp. since I'm a recovering perfectionist. It's a much less stressful way to live.

     The inside message was created digitally using Print Shop and 2 fonts from Lettering Delights called LD Soccer Mom and LD Wedding.

     What would I do differently? I guess I could have rounded all 4 corners, but I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. Let me know what you think. Thanks for stopping by and sharing you thoughts and time with me. Please leave a comment if you have a moment, I'd love to know you were here. Have a blessed weekend!

Bunny hopping for the guys.

     Well, I finished the card for the male college students on my list.  I basically just changed the colors on the front and used a different paper on the inside.

   Compare to the card for the gals from last post.

     If you hadn't read the earlier post, the pockets are for packets of Fun Dip. I've known these students since at least kindergarten. Most of them went to grammar school with my son.

     I thought I'd show you the background paper I made,  since you can't really see it with the images on the card. It's a great idea when you need paper and plain colored paper just won't do. Info in previous post (the boy's is gold perfect pearls however.)

     I've finished them all, up to the point of the water coloring. I have to mention that these Bugaboo bunnies are very mischievous. My husband cut out the bunnies (I was tired of cutting out black rectangles myself) and by the time he got upstairs to my craft room, 14 of the bunnies had disappeared. I know I had cut and scored all of the card bases ahead of time, so I could just assemble them all and when the time came, 5 bases were missing. I had the 2 1/2 inches of cardstock that was cut off of them, but they were nowhere to be found. <.< Very suspicious. I wonder were the bunnies put the cardstock and what they plan on doing with it?  Here is a photo of all of the finished cards together.

     Again, a special thanks goes to Creating in Carolina for the original idea. Today she has another cute card on her blog and a free jelly bean svg.  I'd also like to mention that Letraset is having a give-away, where you can win all 3 Promarker blending sets. Check out the details at this  Going Buggy post. Enfys always has some great inspiration on her blog too.

     Thanks for stopping by. Please, leave a comment if you have time. They really mean a lot. Have a week filled with joy and creativity!

The Guys Cocoa Packet Cards a Couple of Baptism Cards

     Well, I had a productive day today. I went to lunch with a friend of mine to celebrate my birthday belatedly (my birthday is in December, but we had family medical things going on and it wasn't a good time). After she left, I started some laundry and headed up to the craft room. I worked on the male counter-part of the cocoa pocket card that a posted a few days ago. For this version I used a patterned paper from the DCWV Holiday Collection Christmas Stack. I used the same Inkadinkado Christmas Characters Stamp and colored it to match the paper, with Steadtler Watercolor pencils, Gelly Roll Clear Star for the snowflakes and trails behind the sled and a black glaze pen for the eyes and nose. I also used the same Copics BG10 on the bears and B00 to accent the snow and ground the image. The white rectangle was cut with a nestability. The sentiment was stamped with ink from Color Box's Petal Point Pinwheel collection. I also used the blue from the same collection to ink the sides of the white rectangle.

     Here are the two designs together.

If you'd like the directions for the cocoa pocket card, you can find it on the second post below this one.

     While ink was drying on this I worked on cards that I still needed to make for a gift for the Youth Director at my Church. If you've been following the saga since the beginning, I was making her some cards as a belated Christmas present (part of the December thing). The cards I've already given her are posted earlier on this blog. I asked her what else she could use, thinking I'd make her about 2 more cards and she said baptism, so today that's what I made. I think I might try to make her a couple of birthday cards, also, sometime soon. 

     The 2 cards I made are basically the same except for paper color and ribbon.  For the first one I choose green paper from Paper Studio's Pastel Cardstock Pack, cut a 5 1/4 x 4 inches and embossed it with Sizzix Divine Swirls. Next I added striped vellum cut at 4 3/4 x 3 /12 inches and added silver metallic dots to the corners. The green ribbon was some I picked up at Joanne's. I cut a scalloped oval with a nestie and stamped the wood mounted Stampabilities Ornate Cross on it with Big and Bossy, then embossed it with silver metallic embossing powder. I then added the oval popping it up. The oval was cut with a nestie also and stamped with Clear Stamps Wedding Congratulations in Dark Chocolate by PaperTrey Ink. It was double popped to go over the image. The inside is very basic for me. I just left if for her to write in. The butterflies were cut from some of the scraps with a Martha Stewart punch. 

     You see the yellow is basically the same, only embossed with Swiss dots and stamped with Summer Sunrise ink from PaperTrey. The ribbon is Best Occasions Self-adhesive Ribbon. 

     What would I have done different. The yellow one was actually done first and I realized that the vellum needed to be cut smaller, so I fixed that on the green one. On the green one, I had forgotten to add the ribbon and had to sneak it under after it was glued down, but it worked, phew!  I think the ribbon on the yellow is place to high. I like the placement on the green better. Well, we won't talk about how far the laundry got, but there is always tomorrow.

     Thanks for stopping by today and visiting with me. Leave me a note if you've got a moment more.  I may not be able to post on late Friday/Early Sat. because I will be picking my son up from college for his spring break. It doesn't seem like spring, but that's what the school calendar says. Maybe that's why so many of them go south, to find spring ;- ) Until next time then.

Cocoa Pocket Card

     I have nine college students, who live away from home, that I try to send a little love. I planned for the next card to be a pocket card that would hold a packet of cocoa. (Who knew it would warm up in the midwest.) I looked around the internet, but most of  the ones I found were more box size, or just over size. I really wanted to stay with an A2 card, if I could, so I designed one my self. While choosing my papers, I realized I had 2 designs. One for the males and one for the females. Today, I show you the one I made for the females, since that's the only I've done ;- ) I have three to make for them.

     To start I  cut the paper 5 1/2 inches by 11 inches. Then I scored it at the 2 1/2 inch point and the 6 3/4 inch point. I then rounded the corners. The second photo shows how it will look when it is folded up.

     I then choose a pink paper from Paper Studios Pastel Cardstock Pack for the bottom mat and cut it to 5 1/4 x 4 inches. The next mat is a pattern cardstock with glitter and texture, that came from a JoAnn exclusive, they had the Christmas before last called Peppermint Forest. It was cut at 5 x 3 3/4 inches. I used my nestabilities to cut the large scalloped oval and stamped it, with the sledding polar bears from Inkadinkado's Clear Stamps Christmas Characters and also, the sentiment from the same set. The image was stamped with Papertrey's Enchanted Evening Ink and the sentiment with Colorbox's Enchantment Aqua Ink. I colored the snowflakes and the swirls in the image with Gelly Roll Clear Star. The clothing on the bears and sled were colored with Steadtler  Watercolor Pencils and also some highlights on the scarf with the Gelly Roll and the hat with a White Glaze Pen. The black on the bears (nose and eyes) is a Glaze Pen and a used Copic Markers BG10 to shade the bears and B00 to give some definition to the snow and add a base to the image. I also inked it with Broken China Distress Ink.

     On the in inside, I cut a different piece of glitter, embossed cardstock from Peppermint Forest for the front of the cocoa pocket. I planned the cuts to get the images from the paper. I cut a 1 x 2 1/2  inch rectangle of the pink paper, and rounded the corners. I then used my ATG gun to tape the sides of the pocket up. I used Versamark Dazzle and a small snowflake from the Inkadoo stamp set and randomly stamped the paper, then I stamped it with a sentiment from Hero Arts Big Hugs in Tsunkinako Black Ink. Each one of these cards is a bit different inside, due to the different characters on the paper. I didn't pop up the image on the front, due to the fact that the cocoa, already makes it tight in the envelope, however, on the inside I popped up the sentiment, since it's at the bottom and below the the bulge made from the cocoa. Unfortunately, I was out of 1/16 inch pop dots, but I'm thrifty, so I cut up the surrounding paper and used that. Shown below.

     The sentiment label was inked, except for one. That was the first one I put on when I was scrambling around to find my pop dots and so I forgot to ink that one. I get distracted by one thing and forget what I meant to do, hate that.  I decided I should make tags to go in the pockets with a personal note for each one. I stamped a tag with Big and Bossy using a grouping of snowflakes stamp and filling in with the small snowflake stamp and embossed it with White Embossing Powder. My plan was to spritz it using a mini-mister filled with Turquoise Perfect Pearls, water and Broken China Re-Inker. I found that one of my mini-misters is not a mister but a mini-jet sprayer! Well, that was interesting. I dealt with that and the first tag, which is too dark, but I'll live with it . I filled a new mister and did the other 2 tags and also added Worn Lipstick Distress Ink to the tags and wiped off the excess from the embossed areas.

I added Martha Stewart twine and will write a note on the back of this one and creatively on the front of the others.

     So, there you go, 3 card down and 6 more to go. They will probably be basically the same, but with different papers, but who knows. We will see where creativity leads that day. What would I do differently? Well, I am thinking of looking for snowflake buttons for the front yet or buttons in coordinating colors. With a total of 9 cards I didn't want to get too detailed or difficult.  I think I might have papered the inside of the pockets. I also might have embossed 1 or both of the sentiments, again trying to keep it fast. Thanks for coming back and looking. Drop me a word about how you see things.