Trees, glorious trees!

What is your favorite holiday tradition?  Decorating? Caroling?  Opening stockings?  I have many, but I really love getting and decorating the Christmas Tree.  It is so fun to bundle up with the fam and find the perfect tree to cut down.  We love drinking the warm cocoa or coffee in the cold winter air and the smell of that fresh pine scent!  My lungs feel clearer just thinking about it!  Then of course taking that tree home, strapped to the roof of our car, when I see other's doing the same I just get giddy. Finally, decorating the tree is the best part yet.  I love unwrapping each ornament from the box and remembering where/when it came from, usually in the stocking from Santa on a specific year, the ornament representing something special.  When we are all done, it is oh-so-wonderful to see that glorious, glittering tree!

Today's card is of some of those beloved holiday trees.  It has that traditional Christmas feeling with the reds and greens and the bright and fun washi tape makes a great accent.  I love DP for the trees, the variety of greens like you might see in real life but also the little bits of color that look like decorations.  And of course the sparkle that really does make you feel like you want to, "be merry!"  This card was fairly easy to create with the paper piecing and die cutting.  The stamps are from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Forest & Pa-rum-pa-pum-pum.

Thanks for stopping.  Whatever holidays you celebrate, I hope they are merry!

PRIZES!

My fave time of the month is  (NO, not that time!!!) when one of my fave stamp companies does a release and gives away prizes.  I always cling to a hope that I will win one of the fabulous new sets and if not, it was totally worth it and I will buy them all one day!  bwa-ha-hahahahaha! :)  So with out further ado, here is the hop for today over at Paper Smooches.  Check it out, maybe you will win!

Come back later and check out my post for today with some Holiday goodness!

It's all about Elephants

Yep today that is what you get, Elephants!  I adore elephants and have a small figurine collection of them from different countries.  As is appropriate the color scheme is GREY with pink and either yellow or green.  I think these bright colors totally offset the grey and are super fun.  So let me introduce you to today's cards....

The first card is for a girlfriend and her husband.  He has been on dialysis for some time but he finally got a kidney transplant ON THANKSGIVING!  Talk about something to be thankful for!!!!  I am so excited for them and hope this makes their lives just a little bit easier.  Some of our other friends are getting together and purchasing a meal service to give them some breathing room while he is still in the hospital and adapt to this change.  The news seemed so big that the word huge and the elephant seemed appropriate! :)

Supplies for this card include Lawn Fawn stamps Interlocking Backdrops (oh so trendy!) and Quinn's ABC's.  The elephant stamp is from Inky Antics Honey Pop Collection.  I love the bright pink and green against the grey, it just feels happy!  I also used a fun tag and that means I can participate in this weeks Lawnscaping Challenge #46, Using Tags (not the goal but happy it worked out!).

Next I have a baby shower card for one of my daughter's pre-k teachers.  She is having her first child and much to the family's surprise it is going to be a girl (I guess there are a lot of boys in the family).  So of course they are excited.  I asked her sister what her colors would be and she said she found a cute combo of grey, white, yellow and hot pink.  I wouldn't have dreamed of putting these colors together, but they really do work!  And of course that allowed me to keep with my grey elephant theme. :)

The stamps used here are, again, the Inky Antics elephant and the Sentiment from Paper Smooches Word Salad Set.  I LOVE this sentiment set!  And of course this worked out with the current Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge photo!  I obviously substituted pink for the red, but these colors, patterns and textures are perfect for the challenge.

So.....CONGRATULATIONS to these wonderful people, they deserve the best! :)