More Artistic Outpost Snowy Woods

I just love this Santa. He looks just like the real thing, which as we all know, is alive and well and currently sunning in Boca Raton or points south. I think the RockCandy Studios Brown Baroque Border (try quickly saying THAT three times) really sets off the sentiment and works beautifully with the vintage look.

To make this card, I used Stampin'Up! cardstock (Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom) and SU's Basic Black, Purely Pomegranate and Apricot Appeal inks, a couple of antique brass brads and RCS Baroque Border. I stamped the Santa image in black, sponged on the Purely Pomegranate and Apricot Appeal inks and tore the lower edge. I stamped the sentiment in Purely Pomegranate, sponged the edges of the sentiment card and layered it onto Chocolate Chip. I used a Cuttlebug background to texturize the larger Chocolate Chip layer. I added brads to the sentiment card and attached the border above and below. I layered all onto the Pretty in Pink. I really like the "Happy Christmas" sentiment with this image. It seems very old-fashioned to me and I thank Artistic Outpost for including it with this gorgeous plate.

Friday, Roxi and I hauled our wares to the West Tennessee Christian Women's Retreat at Whispering Hills Conference Center in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We were invited by our good friend, Dianne Papasan, who was one of the organizers of the event. We spent the weekend with a great group of ladies and had a commemorative make & take bookmark for each of them to create. All was well except the glue I bought for the event. It was really fresh and REALLY sticky, which is what you want in a gluestick, but we had people sticking to bits and pieces of RCS trims, to the bookmarks, to the table cover, to the gluestick, to each other....you get the picture.

One thing I really enjoy with make & takes, especially when the group is not really a stamping or scrapbooking bunch, is the wonder you see in someone's eyes the first time they stamp an image or finish their piece. It's like a child who has just successfully ridden a bike without training wheels. There is such a sense of accomplishment. We saw that over and over this weekend.

I want publicly thank our gracious friend Shelly Hickox who opened her home to two weary travelers Friday night. The selfish guests in question arrived at her home after 11 p.m. Friday night, kept Shelly and hubby Dan up half the night talking about the debate, then snuck out like thieves in the night before seven the next morning. Well...I stretched the truth a bit. We did arrive after 11 and stayed up a bit talking, but Shelly and Dan were so nice to us. Their opening their home to us kept us from having the expense of a hotel (We are just starting this business. Every penny must be wisely spent!) or making the hour-and-a-half drive back to Drummonds and Brighton and back again to arrive by seven the next morning. We would have had five hours to sleep, and we all know that when you know you have to get up with the chickens, you just can't fall asleep immediately. We did get up with the chickens, though. Shelly has chickens, and while we didn't walk out to the coop to actually see them, we did hear the rooster greeting the sunrise. We also met Steve the cat who is a girl. Shelly woke us at six and made a pot of coffee with freshly ground beans. We all talked a little art before we had to crank up my log-wagon diesel truck to head back to the conference center. I'm sure everyone was awake after that, including the neighbors.

I'm off to prepare my class materials for my Sunday school class as well as dinner items for our last-Sunday-of-the-month fellowship. I will be posting again this evening with a card from the new AO Bluebird plate.

Have a blessed day!