Look What Santa Brought Me! (JB: 13:01)

Hi all! I just have a quick post tonight. It has been a typical "mom" weekend, cleaning, laundry, organizing.... finally getting the rest of my house "de-wintered" all the snowman and lit garlands came down today. I put out my few Valentine's Day decorations and all my regular things. It was a typically busy weekend, ever since my kids hit school age, I kind of look forward to Mondays, actually! ;) My house is quiet, clean, and no boys are fighting with each other. Ah yes, Monday is a happy day for *this* mom. :) I look forward to a soy latte and my errands run in peace and quiet, though I still have a lot to do.

I was wanting to play this challenge over at Jingle Belles as soon as I saw it go up! So glad I managed to get it done. It's about using your new crafty goodies that Santa brought you. I didn't ask Santa for very much this year, but I did get a Big Shot, which was pretty cool, since my Cuttlebug was 5 years old (at least, I honestly don't remember when I got it, but it was a while ago, I know that!) So, I wanted to use the Big Shot, and some of the super cool Stampendous Cling Rubber Stamps that I picked up on clearance at Michaels for 3$! :) I also got a basic set of Distress Markers with a coupon, and used them on this card, too. So Santa brought me + After Christmas sale + a cute die that I recently got from TCP for being Swanky Stamper+Distress Markers = this card. And it is kind of a departure for me really, more of a "collagey" style, and I like it! :)

So, I started with taking the JUMBO cardinals stamp, and I heat embossed it in white on white card stock. Then, I colored in the different areas with the Distress Markers and spritzed with water, then dabbed it off. Then I fussy cut out the cardinals and set them aside.

For the rest of the card, I did a simple DP background (Merry and Bright by MME) and I stamped the corner of it with the other stamp in the set with olive ink. I colored the berries red and added a few gems for glitz. Using my new machine (which has really already seen a LOT of love!) I cut the snowflake border from a red scrap. I adhered the gold number stickers (Dear Lizzy by American Crafts) and the little "all is calm" banner that I cut from a different piece of DP. I adhered down the bird image then, and layered the snowflakes after that. The last touch was a few more gems and a mini vintage clip (Tim Holtz).

So, what did Santa bring YOU this year? Anything crafty and fun? If you comment, I'd love to hear. :) Have a stellar day! :)

xo, Noelle