It was Very Very Close!

Good Day Stampers!

Well Christmas morning is well and truly over and now we are waiting for the New Year's Celebrations!  I was blessed Christmas morning with so many lovely presents from my DH and friends and Family!  I got a Kindle and a Coffee Grinder for my Espresso Machine (which I received last Christmas and I love!).  I also got a Wii and some games and soooo much more.  I did receive some very lovely cards from friends and family.  I will take  pic's and show them at another time. 

For now I want to address the issue raised yesterday!  My sister conceded defeat and was very gracious about it I must say, considering she doesn't like losing!  hahaha   But I have looked at her Christmas card from every angle and I have to say she really tried and actually I think she succeeded in doing a card worthy of, well, me! 

She, to her credit put a lot of time and effort in this card which I don't think the pic's from yesterday showed.  So here are a couple of close up's of the fine details.

This pic shows the layers on the fire place and the cute fireplace swag.  Very inventive of her and I don't think I have seen this done anywhere else.  She used #120907 decorative punch to make this swag and ran it through the Big Shot Snow Burst embossing folder to get the raised design.  Every little holly berry was punched out and glued on separately and glittered.  I love the mantle because of the sponging and the curved edges.

Ahh!  Mr. Twigster ( a retired set)  fit the Embossing frame exactly and was perfect for the scale of this card.  The edges around the frame were gilded with gold embossing powder and looked very antiquey. 

Another look at the fire place.  The logs were a nice touch and the #119976 Square Lattice embossing folder looks like brick.  Her flames are hand done and sponged.  And if you look close there is even a strip on the bottom of the fire place that looks like the hearth stone.  Love it.

So Colleen although you "lost" the card contest your little heart can un-shrivel because I loved what you did.  I honestly think if I hadn't done the inside you would have won. 

And now on to another subject.  This pic shows the gift box I decorated to put one of Colleen's gifts in.  I gave her the new Dazzling Details in Cherry Cobbler that is in the new Mini out and active on Jan 4th.  Some of you may have received this in the mail today. 

I used the Kraft boxes that were in the Holiday Mini.  Love them and I so hope they keep them for awhile.  I used the Holly Berry DSP and the #121812 Fun Flowers die for the big shot.  I sponged Champagne Shimmer Paint on the edges of the flower and ran some of the layers through the Big Shot using various embossing folders.   The leaves I made using French Foliage and Clear embossing powder. 

Here's the top view of the flower.  It is so pretty IRL and sparkley.

This was a Christmas Card I made using the Come to Bethlehem stamp set.  LOTS of sponging here!

My MIL doesn't like the smaller cards so I made a normal sized (translation - store size) card for her using the same set.  I embossed the images using Gold embossing powder and I tried a different design.

This is how the front opens up.  I still like my smaller cards better lol.

So that's it for today everyone.  I will be back soon with some sneak peeks of the SAB catty.  Can't wait for you to see the lovely new products I got from the mini.  So many products so little time!!

Exhausted hugs!