You know what the best thing about Thursday is…it means that tomorrow is Friday, and Fridays mean the beginning of the weekend (well, sort of).  Yeah for Thursdays.  I’m coming off another busy, busy week, but there is light to the end of my tunnel.

You see, I have my most favorite person on earth here in my home for the next weekend.  Yes, my mom came in this morning to visit the family, and that just makes my whole world perfect.  My mother is not only the best nana in the world (just for you info, my mother-in-law is the world’s greatest grandma), but she is hands down my best friend in the world.  So needless to say, again, my world is perfect and this Thursday, where I got to pick up my mom from the airport, is the best there could be.

However, with the addition to my mother entering our world, I have seemed to be behind all week (after all, one does have to clean super well when ones’s mother comes to town).  So tonight is my first time to get to my computer to share the couple of cards I was able to squeak out.

Regardless of the few number of challenges I was able to play with, I think the designs came together very nicely this week.  You will note with Halloween only a few days away, Tis’ the season for Holiday cards has begun.  Don’t be bitter if you feel it is too soon.  The holidays will be here before we know it.

Up first is the only non-Christmas card, but I will warn you it is a holiday card non the less.  This week the team over at Inspired by All the Little Things present a beautiful inspiration photo filled with beautiful fall leaves.

I pulled out a thanksgiving themed stamp set from Hero Arts and pulled out all the leaves from the set (there were three).  Then I pulled out six fall colored Distress Markers (vintage photo, frayed burlap, forest moss, barn door, wild honey and spiced marmalade) and colored the stamps withe the marker and stamping it out.  I took a bit of water on my water brush and bleed the color just enough to soften it.  I pulled out a sentiment from the same stamp pack and stamped that out with a bit more marker rubbed onto the stamp.  I backed the water color paper with some festive brown printed paper.  I left the stamp at just that because I felt it was quite pretty.  Simply, but pretty.

The elves of Christmas cards over at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown this week passed out a technique challenge for us to wrap our festive minds around.  This time around those sneaky little holiday elves were looking for the technique of embossing (either dry or heated).  I decided to play with both.

I pulled out a die from My Favorite Things, and die cut the scene into some white card stock.  I pulled out the die cut areas, and stuck the negative paper into a Darice Embossing folder and ran it through my big shot.  I then pulled out the mug die cut image and the big puff to the snow cap and ran them over my Versamak ink pad and heat embossed white embossing powder.  I did the same with the small puff to the cap and the cut out coco and heat embossed them with gold embossing powder.  I added sparkly white embossing powder to the marshmallow.  I die cut another image of the gloves and hat out of some frosty printed paper and set them all back into the negative embossed card stock.  I stamped a ‘let it snow’ sentiment onto the cup with some Stazon and heat embossed a Christmas sentiment in gold embossing powder onto a scrap of card stock and adhered it to the card with some dimensional tape.  Finally, I added a bunch of tiny crystals to the card to give it a bit more sparkle.  I am not normally a great at paper piecing, but for once I think I may have come up to snuff.

The gals over at Jingle Bells this week introduced a new challenge.  This time they are looking for designs that have Christmas Critters in it.

I pulled out a new (to me) stamp and stamped out the cute little reindeer and the greenery from the Hampton Arts stamp pack.  I colored in the whole scene with my copic markers, trying to keep the tones a little muted.  Then I flick perfect pearls spray onto the card stock so that it would have shimmer snow drops across the whole thing.  I added a couple of gold shinny crystals to the card and left everything that simple.

Finally today the gals over at The Paper Players passed out a sketch challenge for us to sink our teeth into.  It seemed like a simple challenge, but alas it is one of those designs you can so easily over think.

I decided to keep things simple and pulled out a pretty piece of Christmas card stock and stamp a tall Christmas tree onto the paper.  I then colored the tree using simple coloring with my copics.  I wanted the images on the paper to show through.  I die cut with a Little B die a circle from some more Christmas card stock and stamped out some little gifts and a simple sentiment onto the circle.  Again I colored the gifts in with a bit of copic marker.  I adhered the card stock to an A2 card, and added the circle with some dimensional tape.  I then highlighted the tree with a bit of white gel pen to help it pop.  Other than that I keep the card that simple.  Again, not my normal approach to a challenge, but in the end I liked the look.

That’s it for tonight.  I am off to sleep since the rest of my people (mom included ) are already asleep.  Till next time…