New Products and a New Friend---Life is good!

I was so excited last night!  I finally received my pre-order from the brand new Holiday Catalogue.  It's always so much fun to actually have the stamps and paper and punches and framelits, etc. in hand rather than just see it on a page.  I definitely loved everything I ordered.  That's always a good start.

Today I got up early and prepared to meet someone that I've only known through the Internet.  Marilyn Meadows is from New Zealand and she's "liked" my Facebook page and follows my blog.  How great is that!  She and her husband have been travelling in the U.S. and here in Canada and she asked if she could visit.  Of course!  I was ecstatic.  I thought it might be fun and a way to keep our hands busy if we made a card while we got to know each other in person.  After all, the Internet, while wonderful in bringing people together, is limiting.  I also thought Marilyn might be as excited about all the new Stampin' Up! products as I was.  Yes, she was!

The stamp set we decided to use was the Christmas Bauble.  We first heat embossed the image in Silver embossing powder on Whisper White and then decided to do some fancy colouring using the Blendabilities.  Unhappily both of us wound up going slightly outside the embossing and so we mutually agreed that this would become a fussy-cut image.  I like it when there's an easy fix---especially when it gives the finished card a bit of an extra "wow".

Since Marilyn's husband had chosen to snooze outside in his vehicle, it couldn't be too very long a visit and Marilyn had to leave before the card was completely finished.  Since she has Blendabilities back in New Zealand, however, she can easily finish up.  I continued working on my own after she left and added a bit of an extra element by stamping a layer of Whisper White with the new Ornamental Pine stamp set before attaching the fussy-cut ornament.

The base cardstock is Naturals White and then I've added a layer of Coastal Cabana.  The sentiment is from the new Good Greetings Hostess set.

Thanks for a great time stamping together, Marilyn.  Wish you lived closer so that we could do it often.

I've decided to enter the card into the challenge at Addicted to Stamps and More.  It's for anything "Holiday" and so the card definitely qualifies.  For more cards in this challenge, just click here.