The Gift Bow Die is So Much FUN!!

Aloha, all!

     Finally last night I had a chance to get back into my craft room and actually make a card!  Oh, I've been in my craft room since I've been home from my 3+ week trip. But that was mostly to unpack a couple of boxes of Stampin' Up! goodies that I ordered while I was away.  Stampin' Up! has been having short little sales that come and go like the wind, and I wasn't going to let a little thing like a trip 6,000 miles away from home stop me from snatching up those goodies! 

     But I digress.  The big news of the day is that this is the end of the first week of the Create with Connie and Mary 2013 Winter Collection!  Of course that means that there's a Saturday challenge.  Even though I'm just a Guest Designer for this edition, I still get to participate as part of the Winter Edition Design Team for the challenges!  This week the challenge is a sketch challenge (and you know Sketch Challenges are one of my FAVORITE kinds of challenges!)

     When I first saw this sketch, I wondered how I could make anything that was much better than the sketch itself – it's a great card (well, it does need some stamping!).  Given that entering the sketch into the challenge was not an option, I had to think of something!

     And this was what I finally came up with!  I had to look at it in quite a few directions before I decided that I liked the card enough actually to submit it to the challenge.  And, yes, I frequently make cards that, while they're "finished," they just don't look right when photographed and put online.  I think this one looks better in a photo than it does in person.  Go figure!

     The top and bottom elements of this sketch are both made using the Sizzix Gift Bow Die from the Stampin' Up! 2013 Holiday Catalog.  I used both sizes of bows (which you've seen me do before) to form the top element of the card.  I used both sides of one sheet of paper in the Season of Style Designer Series Paper set, one side  for the larger bow and the other for the smaller.  I glued both of these together and then wrapped a single rectangle of one color around both bows (the rectangle is part of the die).

     Then I cut four pieces of the notched "ribbon" ends and arranged them to mimic the notched element in the sketch. 

     Finally I stamped a greeting from the stamp set, Christmas Messages, and cut the stamped layer 2-1/2" wide by 2-1/4" high.  I matted this with a layer of Old Olive Card Stock 2-5/8" wide by 2-3/8" high, and applied the layered element to the middle of the card using Stampin' Dimensionals.  For a final accent, I added a Cherry Cobbler Candy Dot in each of the corners of the stamped layer.

     Besides Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive in these sheets of Designer Series Paper, there is quite a bit of Crumb Cake; so I used that color to form the card base.  I decided to cut the base to form a card with the fold on the top as I thought that accented the layout better than a card folded on the side would have.

     One of the really nice features of the Christmas Messages Stamp Set is that there are both an outside greeting and an inside sentiment.  For the "Deck the Halls" greeting, I used the sentiment, "Hoping your Christmas is trimed with the love and warmth of family and friends."  How cool is that!

     Oh, but it's not as cool as all the projects in the Create with Connie and Mary Winter Collection!  For every project there are full color tutorials, and there's a project every day but Saturday!  Even if you "missed" the first week, you actually never miss anything in one of the Connie and Mary Collections because you always have access to the full Collection no matter when you join!  And, of course, you'll want to see my project, which will be coming up in a couple of weeks – and you can ONLY see it on the Create website!

     Now I'm off to have some more fun in my craft room – check back on Monday for my latest project!