A Rainbow & Long Tall Snowflakes

  Look at what we saw off our front porch yesterday!  It was so cool!  We actually see rainbows quite a bit in our neighborhood and they always thrill me.  I get so excited and make Matt and the boys stop what they're doing and come look with me!  Usually we see them out our backyard after a late summer afternoon thunderstorm but yesterday this one appeared out the front in the morning during a rainstorm.  It was pouring rain out the back but really sunny.  In the front it was hardly raining at all...weird but totally cool.

  I couldn't back up any more on the porch to get both ends.  This photo doesn't do it justice at all....it was a super vibrant and bright rainbow. 

 
  There was actually a second rainbow above this one but it was really faint and I didn't think it would show up in a photo so I just concentrated on this one (seeing that I don't have mad photo skills or anything I didn't want to try to fuss with the camera settings and miss it completely!).  You can really see each of the separate colors in these close ups.

  The rainbow was completely gone about 5 minutes later and it was dark, cold and pouring rain again but seeing this first thing in the morning totally made the rest of my day.  Beauty is certainly all around us, we just need to take the time to look for it.

  On to the stamping for the day.  I made this card for a Creative Crew challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  The Creative Crew is a rotating group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators who issue challenges to showcase Stampin' Up! products.  This challenge was to make a long skinny card based on a sample card in the catalog.  I had just received an order that had the long skinny open ended envelopes so I could actually send a card this size if I made it!  I choose the card on page 141 and changed it to a Christmas card. 

  I changed the butterflies to snowflakes, used a different green and used a Christmas greeting.  Though looking at it some more I should have embossed the sentiment in white and centered it a bit better.  Oh well....the first card is always a prototype and you can fix and improve on subsequent cards.  I still need to make a few more Christmas cards so this might be a fun one to make more of.

  The base is Lucky Limeade with a Lucky Limeade DSP banner trimmed with scallop punch edges.  The snowflakes are Pool Party, Whisper White, and Real Red.  I cut those from the Northern Frost Decorative Strip.  The centers are highlighted with a Bitty Button threaded with white Baker's Twine and an adhesive rhinestone stuck on top of the twine. 

  I sprayed the snowflakes with Shimmer paint for some extra sparkle but it doesn't show up at all in the photo. 

Lastly, I stamped the "Merry Christmas" from Loads of Love in black Stazon.  Looking through all of my Christmas and winter sentiments this was the only one that really fit the style and space of the card. 

  This was a fun challenge to do and I will certainly be trying out more long skinny cards in the future.  I like being pushed to try a different size or shape card now and then because I usually just stick to my A2 size and leave it at that. 

  I hope everyone has a great weekend planned.  We've got plans to meet some friends on Sunday afternoon but other than that we've just got house stuff and getting ready for Thanksgiving stuff to do.  I definitely plan to get in some stamping time though!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?


Stamps: Loads of Love

Ink: Stazon black


Paper: Lucky Limeade, Lucky Limeade DSP, Whisper White, Pool Party, Real Red


Accessories: Northern Frost Decorative Strip, Bitty Buttons, Baker's Twine, scallop edge punch, adhesive rhinestones, Shimmer Mist