WWC238 - Tristan's "All About Occasions" Challenge

I love our All About Occasions Challenges!  It's so much fun to decide on an Occasion and then to create a card for it.  I've chosen to make another Christmas card simply because I'm going to need them sooner than I'd like to admit.  Of course the fact that I was dying to use the gorgeous Nature's Beauty stamp set and more of that stunning Feels Like Frost Designer Series Paper played a large role in my decision.

The photographic images used on this Designer Paper are simply breathtaking, aren't they?  When I saw this piece, I knew it would be perfect for the darling little bunny image in the Nature's Beauty set.  What I particularly love about the paper is that there is enough white and "empty" space near the bottom to allow for an image to be stamped and coloured, integrating it into the paper as if it had been printed there.  In fact, as well as the bunny, I stamped the little bare twigs of the bushes in the lower right corner.  And they, too, look as if they were part of the paper design, don't they?

I used my coloured pencils and Gamsol to colour the bunny and also to add the same blue to the base of the bunny and twigs so that the shadows appeared to be natural.  Continuing with the simple design, I decided to heat emboss my sentiment using the gorgeous Copper Embossing Powder.  I finished the card by mounting the design onto a copper foil matte and then onto the base of Heavy Whisper White cardstock.

A simple design, but I absolutely love it and hope you do, too.

I hope you'll check out the wonderful creations by the Watercooler Artists over at our Watercooler Wednesday Challenge.

I've entered my card into the following challenges:

Lemon Shortbread Challenge #102 - Anything Goes

Crafty Animals Challenge #30 - Anything Goes

CHNC Challenge #454 - Anything Christmas Goes

Crafty Creations Challenges #398 - Anything Goes

I Love You and Coffee!

Every once in a while two challenges converge and I can create something that's perfect for each.  That's what happened with The Card Concept and Inkspirational.  It's all about the coffee. 

At first I hemmed and hawed about using the Coffee Cafe set since it, too, is all about coffee.  In the end, however, I went in another direction.  Since both challenges featured a pretty teacup in their inspirational photo, I hauled out a retired die set, the Cups & Kettle Framelits dies, and used the large teacup die to cut out a piece of the striped Springtime Foils Specialty Designer Series paper from the Sale-a-bration second release.  It made a perfect cup, especially after I sponged some Sahara Sand ink around the perimeter to give it dimension. 

For my background I used a base of Heavy Whisper White, a layer of the retired Baked Brown Sugar cardstock, and a layer of the retired Falling in Love Designer Series paper.  Before adding the DSP, I sponged around the perimeter using Baked Brown Sugar ink.  To give the cup more dimension, I used flower shaping tools to round it out and then added dimensionals (two deep in the centre) when adhering it to the card.  The sentiment is from the retired Merry Cafe set and is also stamped using Baked Brown Sugar ink.  To finish off, I cut a butterfly from Copper Foil and from Blushing Bride using the Bold Butterfly framelits and Butterflies thinlits. 

I'm entering this card in The Card Concept #87 (Freshly Brewed)

I'm also entering this card in the Inkspirational Challenge #155 - Coffee Photo