Okay, I’m going to take a brief moment and sneak in a quick post while the house is quiet.  My parents are in from out of town and things have been going, going, going the last few days.

The kids performed the first of two choir performances yesterday for the student body, and it went off with a smashing success.  I was so proud of all those kids.  We only had a couple of mistakes and I’ll go ahead and say they were in fact all my fault.  I promise I’ll get it right for the performance on Monday night when we do the show for the parents.

We headed up to Temecula today with my folks (my husband took today off of work) and we went wine tasting while the kids were in school.  I know not the most responsible thing in the world, but we always do two tasting amongst the four of us (instead of doing one a piece, we split them), so you know we are trying to be somewhat mature.  Now the kids are upstairs playing, and the adults are pulling it back together.  (we also had a really big lunch before we headed back home, and I think that has done us all in more than the wine tasting).  On a side note, you ever in S. California, go head and take a day to go wine tasting in Temecula….it really is a treat.

I figured while the house was quiet for a moment, I would sneak in and share a couple of cards I worked up while everyone was sleeping the other morning.

First up is a technique challenge from the little elves of x-mas themselves 52 Christmas Card Throwdown.  This week they are challenging us to use dies and/or punches.

I don’t have that many dies when it comes to Christmas dies, but

I do have a great little tree die from Poppy Stamps, so I figured, why not.  I pulled three different pieces of Christmas papers and die cut some trees, and then die cut a snow flake frame die from Sizzix.  I applied third piece of snow flake paper down to the back of the card and layered all the die cuts papers.  I added a bunch of holiday stamps in some distress ink, and added a banner with another sentiment.  Finally I added some crystals to give the whole thing a bit of bling.  I don’t think I like this card, and yet at the some time, I sort of drawn to it.  Go figure.

Next up we have a color challenge from the designers of decadence, Cupcake Inspirations.  This week they are challenging us to craft in the colors 0f violet, goldenrod, and blossom.

I have a great little stamp from Magnolia that I have been

waiting for the right time to use, so I pulled her out and started coloring it in with my copics.  Then to really highlight the colors, I added two pieces of printed paper, one in a goldenrod color another in a pale pink, and then added a piece of deep violet metallic card stock.  I pulled out a sentiment (personally I think I pulled the wrong one, but I don’t know which one would be the right one), and made a little banner on white card backed in the same purple metallic.  I’m not usually one to make under boarders on my layered papers, but here I think it really worked to my benefit.

Finally today we have a sketch challenge from the gals over at Always Playing with Paper‘s The Challenge.  This is one of those sketches that normally kicks my butt, but

this time around I was all over it.

I have a cute little fourth of July stamp from Taylor Expressions, and figured this sketch was perfect for it.  I pulled out a sheet of red and white striped paper and another sheet of blue and white and cut them to look like the design.  I then colored in the little gal with my alcohol markers and added the sentiment with a bit of dimensional tape.  Finally, to break up white, I added red, blue and clear sequins to the whole card.

That’s it for today.  I’m going to run over to the pool with the rest of my family now.  Hope the weekend treats you all well and you stay cool or dry depending on where you’re at (yes, it is hot here today).