Too Long!!

Yes, who knew I'd be away from you so long!  I'm sorry.  It's been a busy time for me.  I've had a couple of classes to design and prepare for, we had Homecoming at our church, I designed a new brochure for our church, my sister came for a visit, and the list goes on and on.  So my blogging has fallen behind.  But I have a couple of neat cards to share with you today.  This first one we are making in one of my October classes.  I love how it turned out and it was a hit with my ladies.

I used Crumb Cake for the card itself, with Vanilla on that for the sentiment.  The sentiment is from the Seasonal Sentiments set in the Holiday Mini and is stamped in Soft Suede.  Then I put four 1/4" strips of colors down the side of the vanilla CS.  I used Soft Suede, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, and Daffodil Delight for the strips and for the leaves.  The leaves are punched using the Two-Step Bird Punch.  They are glued onto 1" Very Vanilla squares.  Then those squares are mounted onto an Old Olive scalloped square that I cut with the Scalloped Square Duo Die on the Big shot.

 I wanted you to see this close-up.  I used the piercer and the mat pack to punch little holes around the vanilla squares to give the card some dimension and interest.  Neat, huh?  One of my ladies, Elizabeth, put her leaves in a circle and I thought they looked very nice that way, too. 

 I told my ladies that this is a good layout to use in any color scheme and with anything in the squares; that it would look great as a winter/Christmas card.  So I came home and made one using different colors and snowflakes in the squares to show them. 

Here is that one.  For this card, the card itself is Sahara Sand with Whisper White for the sentiment.  That sentiment, too, is from Seasonal Sentiments in the Holiday Mini.  I chose Not Quite Navy, Marina Mist, Baja Breeze and Bashful Blue for the 1/4" strips and for the squares for the snowflakes.  I cut the snowflakes using the Northern Frost Decorative Strip in the Holiday Mini using the Big Shot.  This snowflake is the smallest flake on the strip.

 Here is a close-up of the scalloped square.  I cut this one from Elegant Eggplant CS and stamped the sentiment in Elegant Eggplant ink, too.  In the center of each of the snowflakes, I glued one of the Basic Rhinestone Jewels to give the card alittle shine. 

I needed a swap for a group I'm swapping with and my husband selected this sample from a couple I showed him, so I made these for my swaps.  I was pleased with the layout in BOTH color schemes.  Just shows you when you find a good layout you like, make it in several themes for several seasons!

Thanks for stopping by again today!!  More later.....  Smiles, Laura