Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

  I woke up this morning to a great surprise in my inbox.  I was chosen as a winner in a stamping contest!!  Now this just isn't any old stamping contest but a contest that the Co-Founder and CEO of Stampin' Up! issues every month for anyone, not just demonstrators, to enter.  Shelli Gardner has a monthly challenge on her blog and she picks several winners and I happen to be one of them for the September Christmas Card Creative challenge.  There were so many super cute ideas that I'm totally floored to have been one of the few chosen out of all of them.  Click HERE to see the list of winners and HERE to see my original blog post with my winning Jingle Bell Elf Shoes project.

  On to a new project that I completed for the Hope You Can Cling To challenge.  This particular challenge was a sketch challenge that I used along with a color combination that I saw at church a few weeks ago.  You know you're a stamper when.... you go to church and come home with color combinations written down on your bulletin that you just have to try on a card!  I think the colors were probably better left on the church lady's dress but oh well....nothing ventured nothing gained right?  They can't all be winners!  Ha!

  I used the Circle Circus stamp set for the larger circle and the sentiment is from the retired set Happy Greetings.  My circles were cut with the Circle Scissors Plus as none of my dies or punches were quite the right sizes to work for this sketch.  This is a great tool to have for cutting larger size circles.

  The triangle piece of Basic Gray was embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  A length of Basic Gray taffeta ribbon goes under this panel and around the back of the card to tie a nice little bow at the side. 

  I added quite a bit of bling to this card.  I find myself kind of hoarding the long connected strands of adhesive rhinestones.  I don't know why....I have at least 3 sheets of rhinestones in my drawer at any given time, I can get more without a problem and they are very inexpensive for how many rhinestones you get per sheet so I decided that there is no reason at all not to be using them.   I put a strip of 8 under the sentiment and then used a whole bunch to form a circle on top of the larger circle  So, if you've bought some paper, embellishments or ribbons....don't keep them locked away, use them on a card and enjoy creating!  The person who receives the card will enjoy it as well.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?


Stamps: Circle Circus, Happy Greetings (retired)

Ink: Island Indigo, Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Gray


Paper: Island Indigo, Basic Gray, Melon Mambo, Whisper White


Accessories: Basic Gray taffeta ribbon, rhinestones, Square Lattice embossing folder