Ornaments, Hot Chocolate and Cupcakes!!!

Happy Sunday everyone!!!

It has been so nice to be at home again. Izzy has played and read with Jason all day and I have been able to stamp again. Gosh it feels good. I really missed it. The only bad thing is that I am behind on all the challenges I like to participate in. :(

I was so exhausted last night as was everybody else. Izzy and I took naps when we got home and then Jason and I went to bed at 9. There is nothing quite like your own bed. I guess I am getting old. I used to be able to sleep about anywhere, but every year that passes it gets harder and harder to get a good night's sleep outside my bed.

Well the reprieve between Tuxy and Izzy is over. They were so excited to see each other for about an hour last night and now they are back to irritating each other. Izzy gets really mad whenever Tuxy sits on her blanket that she has been dragging around and then Tuxy gets mad when she yanks it out from under him. I don't know what to do with the two of them. I really hope we have some nice weather this week so that they can get outside and burn off some energy.

Which reminds me, we woke up to snow this morning!!!! It has all melted now, but it was completely covering the ground at 7 this morning. Our first snow of the season and boy was it beautiful!!! I love the snow!! The flakes were huge coming down!!! Gorgeous.

Which brings me to my cards!!! I actually have three Christmas cards today. (It is safe now since it is after Thanksgiving!) Two of them use non-traditional holiday colors and the third one is super traditional. I am really getting into the spirit of things.

The first card I want to share with you today is a card I made for Jen Del Muro's Sketch For You To Try Challenge over on her blog I {heart} 2 stamp. I just love Jen's sketches. They are always fun and creative.

When I saw this sketch for some reason I instantly thought the circle would be cute as an ornament. I have been seeing lots of Magnolias sitting on ornaments and when I found this Pink Gem design I knew she would work perfectly for this too! I started this card off by stamping Winter Mimi by Pink Gem Designs on white card stock and coloring her in with my copics and markers. I then cut her out and set her to the side. To create the ornament I cut out a piece of purple card stock with my nesties and embossed it with my swirl embossing folder. I then cut a strip of yellow card stock and ran it through with my swiss dots embossing folder and attached it to the middle. For the hook and cap I took a piece of gray card stock and ran it through my branches embossing folder, cut it out, attached it to the top and then added a metal swirl. I then assembled the card using purple and yellow card stock with DP following the sketch. I tied a green ribbon around the middle and popped off my image. I just love this layout it is so fun and festive!!!

My second card uses one of the beautiful images from Whiff of Joy. These are so amazing and fun to color. All the details in the stamp make for a very sophisticated image. For this card, I used Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge which was a sketch this week. I loved all the layers on this sketch. Layering paper is one of my favorite things to do!!!

Isn't it so cute!!! Love, love, love this image. Okay, enough gushing. I started this card by stamping Willow With Hot Chocolate by Whiff of Joy on a piece of white card stock and colored her in using my copics and markers. Then, following the sketch, I layered on green and red card stock with three different kinds of Christmas DP. I added some green ribbon and red brads to the side and stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment from Sugar Nellie and cut it out with my nesties. I then adhered it to some red and green card stock that I cut out with my nesties. I can't wait to give this card to my sister who loves hot chocolate. I think I am going to scent it with my Hot Cocoa scent from Pink Papery Studios. I really think it will be the perfect finishing touch!!!

My final card is a very non-traditional Christmas cards The colors are non-traditional, the image is non-traditional and even the sentiment is non-traditional, but I wanted to create a card for Izzy to leave out for Santa. I used Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge for the layout.

Doesn't it look so yummy!!! I even put glitter on the cupcake!!! Love it! Okay, I started this card off by stamping a cupcake from HeroArts clear stamp set Cupcakes. I then colored it in with my markers and copics. I added a touch of glitter pen to the frosting to add some sparkle. I then cut it out using my nesties and following the sketch layered on green and pink card stock along with three kinds of Christmas DP. I stamped the sentiment and popped it off the bottom. To finish the card off. I added rhinestones and pink and green ribbon!!! This is just a too fun card!!

Well I am off to weed through my e-mail. I can't believe how much comes in after you have been gone a couple of days!! Thanks as always for stopping by and have a great rest of the weekend!