Already September!

Wow!  September already!  Time goes fast when you go camping.  I've come back to having to finish up two Swaps and also to begin planning for my Open House.  Of course that means playing with some of the new stamps, paper, tools, and embellishments.  Mind you, that's work I love to do.

I decided to try out that gorgeous new stamp set, "Winter Memories".  What first made me want this set was the figure skates, hanging up with some holly leaves and berries at the top of the laces.  My daughter was a competitive figure skater and the skates in the stamp set brought back some wonderful memories.

I knew that I wanted to use the Cherry Cobbler cardstock in my card and I was also itching to try out the Festival of Prints Designer Paper.  I also didn't want the Designer Paper to "take over" the card.  The skates had to be the focal point.  The paper I finally chose had only three colours in the subtle design: Lucky Limeade, Cherry Cobbler, and Very Vanilla.  So that gave me the colours of my cardstock.  I decided to have the Lucky Limeade as my card base.  Then I cut a piece of 4" x 5 1/4" Cherry Cobbler for the next layer and a piece of 3 3/4" x 5" Designer Paper for the next layer.

I decided to use the largest of the Apothecary Accents framelits to cut out a piece of Cherry Cobbler and used the matching shape from the Paper Piercing Pack and my new Paper Piercing Tool to pierce a stitched line around it.  Then I stamped the skates onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock in Basic Black ink.  I wanted to use one of the Labels Collection framelits to cut out the skates but the best size to fit into the Cherry Cobbler shape cut off most of the holly and berries.  So I stamped the holly and berries a second time onto a scrap piece of Very Vanilla and fussy cut that out with my Paper Snips.  Thank goodness they have such sharp, short blades.  I coloured the holly and berries and then coated them with the Crystal Effects.  I just love the way the Crystal Effects makes everything look so glossy and gorgeous!

You just have to see a close-up of the holly and berries.  I think they look like a store-bought embellishment...and I made it myself. :)

You can also see the stitching detail in the close-up.  It really finishes it off nicely.

I used a sponge and Early Espresso to shade around the Very Vanilla shape, filled in the skate blades with the new Silver Stampin' Dazzle marker, and blacked in the heels and soles of the skates.  Then I assembled the card, adding some Cherry Cobbler scallop dots ribbon and an Antique brad along the right side.

I simply love the way the card turned out.  Next I'll have to try out the other two picture stamps in the set.