ColourQ #62

Seriously Arielle?!  Glorious Green?!  That is exactly what I thought when I saw the ColourQ color challenge for this week.  It's not that I don't love the fun colors and inspiration photo, but I never used Glorious Green when it was in Stampin' Up!'s color palette, and I sure wasn't sad to see it go.  But being the rule followers that I am, I dug through my scraps and found some not-so Glorious Green pieces.  Of course, these would be adorable colors for a 1st day of school card, or even a child's birthday card.  But I really love using my collection of retired SU! nativity stamps at this time of year, so I "forced" myself to make a Christmas card.

BABY JESUS IS BORN

I tried the paper piecing technique on this card and was happy with the results.  I have a new found respect for stampers that do a lot of paper piecing.  It's very time consuming and some of those pieces are very tiny!!  I first stamped my image on Very Vanilla cardstock, using black Staz-On ink.  Then I stamped and cut out Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus' "clothes".  Then I stamped and cut out their heads and hands.  I added a little Blush Blossom chalk to their faces to gives them more of a flesh color.  Then I stamped and cut out the sheep with Whisper White. 

The not-so Glorious Green and Real Red combo give it a nice Christmasy feel.  Since I used a retired stamp set, I thought it would be okay to use a retired DSP as well.  I have no idea how old this paper is, but I loved the polka dots.  I was not happy with the Very Vanilla ribbon, but the card was completely assembled and I did not have time to rip it apart.  I'm thinking white grosgrain ribbon would have looked better.  I'm also thinking I should have colored their sandals.  What do you think... Chocolate Chip or Early Espresso? 

This fabulous sketch comes from the Friday Mashup blog.  It's a newer challenge blog and I hope I can play again.  Check them out and play along!

I wanted to give a shout out to all my friends at Stampin' Addicts.  Last year at this time, I posted that I was looking for any retired SU! nativity sets.  I got an instant response.  One sweet lady even gifted me two sets all the way from Michigan!!  How fabulous is that?!  So thanks for being such wonderful online friends.  You guys are the best!!

Be sure to stop by the ColourQ blog and see what the other amazing design team members have done with these colors.  As always, they have ROCKED this challenge.

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stamping!

Baby Jesus Is Born

Hi Stamping Friends!

Well today's double challenge nativity card has lots of "new" stuff.  Well, it's only new to me!  I bought the Stampin' Up! set Baby Jesus Is Born, before it retired.  I haven't touched until today!  I even had to cut it out.  Yes, it's that old!  No die cut rubber.  Boy, I sure don't miss the good ole days when it comes to cutting out stamp sets.  I'm spoiled with the die cut rubber.  Once in a while I'll cut something that leaves an edge, or if the center needs to be cut out, but otherwise I just punch them out and mount them.  The other "new" item I used was my Watercolor Pencils.  I know they are not new in the sense that they have been around for years, but I just recently bought them and today was the first time I used them.  And I love them!  I wish they came in all 48 SU! colors.  I used them with my Blender Pens, and it was soooo easy!

I also have a new-to-me challenge that I played in.  It's from the Embellish Magazine blog.  Very cool inspiration pieces.  This was their Snowflake Color Challenge, and I just realized that I was supposed to include a snowflake.  Ooops!  Oh well!  Next time I'll play by the rules.  I also used the sketch from Karen Giron's blog The Sweetest Thing SSSC49.  Here are the challenge pieces:

And here's my card:

Maybe my star will pass for a snowflake!  I wanted to keep the card simple, so the image takes center stage.  Sometimes I get a card so full of stuff you don't know what to look at it.  I think Dawn McVey at her blog My Favorite Things, does a fabulous job of keeping a card simple but interesting.  She has a great style that I love to be inspired by.  My card base is Kraft.  The DSP is a scrap of retired stuff from SU!.  The star is punched out of Yo-Yo Yellow attached to the Chocolate Chip ribbon with Hemp Twine.  The brads are from the Vintage pack.  Baby Jesus almost looks like an Easter egg dressed in bright yellow swaddling cloths!  I've got another retired nativity stamp set I hope to show off tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Stamping!