Final JUGS Challenge for 2014

Hi Everyone!

Are you recovering from Christmas?  Or maybe you are recovering from standing in return lines today! I hope you had a wonderful, joyous Christmas, no matter how you celebrated!
Are you ready to get back to your craft room for a little unwinding?  Just Us Girls has a wonderful Inspiration Photo for us, this, the final week of 2014~

There are so many elements to love and to be inspired by here.  I was inspired by both the colors and the circles.

I was in need of a special Thank You card for a special little guy at school.  The inspiration photo, combined with the fun new stamp set from MFT was the perfect fit. 

I am linking this card up to Christmas Card Challenges #3- Inspiration Photo Penguin.  Yes, I am aware that this is not a penguin!  It does not have to be for their challenge, but the design of the inspiration photo inspired me and a polar bear is still an arctic critter! 

I stamped the darling image and then masked it.  Masked off the lower portion of the panel and sponged in the grey sky.  Then masked off the sky and sponged in the water.  Next, I used a home made circle template and added circles using white craft ink.  I started large and worked my way down in size.  The last circles were made just by pressing with an inked sponge dauber onto the background. 
There is a bitty snowflake stamp in the MFT set- I stamped it a few times with a glue pad and then added glitter to the snowflakes. 
The bear was stamped a second time, colored and then fussy cut out.  He is popped up on dimensionals.  The sentiment is heat embossed in white. 
Simon Says Stamp's final challenge of the year is 'Anything Goes', so I am linking up there as well. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a blessed weekend! 

Lee Ann  :)

Wow! Where did this Season Go??

Hello Friends!

I am still trying to figure out how the Christmas season got away from me; where has the time gone?  And goodness, you blink and Christmas is over!
If you are like me, you are doing a little end of year cleaning and purging.  I will have pics in another post of my huge craft room re-do!  Time to put all of those Christmas stamps and die sets away for another year, right?  HOLD ON! You can use your dies for other purposes. Take the Top Dog Dies Ornament and Tags #1 Die Set; I went a little crazy with it, making lots of Christmas cards with it this season.  But, turn your die upside down and what do you have??

That's right!  This Hershey's Kiss is made with the Ornament and Tags #1 Die Set.  

How cool is that??  I love that you can get multiple uses from this die set! 

The background was made using the bokeh technique.  I have been wanting to try it for forever!  I did not watercolor my background though, I sponged it.  The white craft ink tended to blend a bit with the red ink, making it a little more pinkie than I would have preferred, but then it IS a Valentine's card!  

The sentiment strip was cut free hand and stamped with a sentiment from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Valentine Critters Stamp Set.  I Used the sketch from CAS(e) This Sketch (although I am not really sure that this is a cas card even though it started out that way!).  I used the Top Dog Dies Banners #1 Die Set for the  scalloped element in the sketch.  

I almost missed the challenge at Shopping Our Stash, a two-weeker, focusing on the color red.  RED is most definitely the dominant color in this card! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a Happy New Year!

Lee Ann  :)