So it is a quiet Sunday night.  The kids are now all asleep and my husband has located a movie he wants to laugh at, so it is just me, my desk, and some time at a computer.  It might just be heaven.

It has been a long day, and frankly a longer weekend, but a wonderful one.  I am working on a new project, so I spent the past two days prepping for it, and stick with me, because I will announce more of the details.  But until then, there is all this prep work to get done.  All I really wanted to do was work on my stuff floating in my brain waiting to be painted onto something, but alas that was not to be.

However, my husband was a brilliant man this afternoon and suggest he just run and grab a pizza for the fam this evening for dinner.  If you are wondering, this is just a few of the reasons I love the man.  And he gathered the kids and dragged them off with him to go get the pizza.  And finally he brought me a couple of slices, kissed my head and suggested I eat and work at the same time.  Then he did the baths and school prep and bed times.  Is it just me or are these the moments when you know you are married to sexist person alive or what?  Maybe it is just me.

But the point, the whole point of this was that I got the work done I needed to get done to get this post out on, wait for it…Sunday.  I will not be a day late this week.  And by next week, the post will be out by first thing in the morning…but lets not ahead of ourselves…just on the right day of the week this week.

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First up we have a seasonal (and when I say seasonal I mean Christmas season) from our friends over at Tis’ the Season where it’s christmas all year.  Yes, I am getting a huge head start on my christmas cards this year.  Anyway, this week they have a fun little sketch for us to work with and without the pressure of mailing all my friends and family their holiday greetings, I find I like doing xmas cards.

Since one of my crafting goals this year is to put a serious dent into all the left over and old 12×12 printed paper I have (neatly) laying around, I reached for some xmas paper.  I pulled the light page out talking about snow and winter, and a dark blue page with swirly snow images and layered the two out according to the sketch.  Then I pulled out my Penny Black Mimi’s Christmas stamp pack and stamped my girl out in Memento tuxedo black ink.  The funny thing was to get all the snow flakes in I had to stamp out like the same three little bubbles what felt like a bazillion times.  But I like how it looked in the end so effort was worth it.  I colored her in with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.  I stamped a winter sentiment from somewhere that said ‘warm winter wishes’.

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Keeping with our holiday theme we have another Christmas card challenge from Jingle Belles card challenge.  This week they are looking for a christmas card that pulls in a christmas tree.  So I die cut out a couple of trees from Poppystamps Large Fremont Pine Background and distressed the edges with Distress Ink forest moss.  I then stamped some different images onto the three different images in the same ink color.  I then took a piece of white card stock and embossed it with a Darice Clouds embossing folder.  I distressed these edges in Distress Ink stormy clouds.  Finally I pulled out some of the old paper of mine and cut it so it was shaped like three different snow banks.  I distressed these edges in the stormy cloud and adhered everything to the card base.  In the end I decided to not add a sentiment (besides the merry merry merry stamped onto the tree) because I thought the card said enough for itself.

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Now back to the actual season at hand.  Our next card, while not a love card to say specifically could so be used for a little dancer you love, so I am going to say it is in fact a love card.

The challenge is brought to us by the gals over at Friday Mashup who like to give you two completely different things to mashup.  This week they have given us this great sketch and music to mashup together.

And off to the races I went, because I just got, for a

killer deal I might add (6 for $10), a bunch of new embossing folders.  I don’t know if you have noticed, but I LOVE using embossing in my cards.  Thus the purchase of all the new embossing folders.  Anyway, I have a new (to me) Darice Sheet Music embossing folder.  I embossed a sheet of beige card stock and sliced it up so that it could look like the sketch and laid a piece of pale pink card stock behind it.  Then I layered a white sheet of card stock onto another layer of pink and assembled the whole sketch out.  Finally I snagged one of my Stampendous Happy Hoppers stamps called Baby Ballerina and stamped her out in Memento desert sand ink.  I then colored her in lightly to match all the paper with my Spectrum Noir alcohol markers.  Finally I added three different sizes and colors of gems to the card and called it a day.  I think the whole card is sweet and I hope one of my girls likes getting it for Valentines day.

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The last challenge we have tonight is a sketch challenge from the folks over at Sunday Stamps.  They have a nice layered challenge that I had tons of fun building up.

Again with my new embossing folder I pulled out a Darice

Sized Dots folders and layered a sheet of card stock.  I pulled out a oval stencil and traced a line to give the sheet a cut line for my scissors to cut.  It made a nice rounded edge.  I then blended some Distress Ink in milled lavender.  I grabbed a sheet of the old paper I’m no longer hoarding and trimmed it out to fit under the embossed card stock.  I added a piece of green stain ribbon to the top of the card (and if anyone has any advice on how to make better bows, that would be swell).  Finally I die cut out the heart and crown from Savvy Dies Heart & Crown.  I accidentally cut through two sheets of card stock and decided to use it.  The top layer of the heart I blended Distress seedless preserves and painted on some bronze distress paint onto the heart.  When I glued down the die cuts I did it on top of the second cut just off center so a little of the white would show through.  Finally I stamped on the sentiment love in the same seedless preserves and left it at that.

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That’s it for tonight.  My wonderful hubby is lounging on the couch and that is where I want to be now, snuggled up with him.  Till next time, have fun crafting, painting, and simply creating.