Tropical Holiday Cards

Hi there!  Our internet service has been patchy since all the storms last week but it's up and running this evening so I'm hoping to catch up with visiting some blogs.  I also wanted to post 2 cards for the current Merry Monday challenge to use non-traditional Christmas colours.  

Although I have lots of wintery images (snowmen, snowflakes, etc) I tend to steer away from them and I try to find ways to incorporate a bit of an island feel into my Christmas cards.  I used shells and starfish to decorate the wreath on my first card and then on my second card I used a coral coloured base.  

That's it for me tonight.   Hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

Supplies Used:

Wreath Card

Cardstock:  (White) Handy Hippo, (Strawberry Slush, Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay) Stampin' Up

Stamps:  (Wreath from Bells & Boughs) Papertrey Ink, (Shells from Life Is Good) Lawn Fawn, (Sentimetn from Merry Messages) Stampendous

Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko, (Strawberry Slush, Lucky Limeade, Garden Green) Stampin' Up

Gems:  Recollections

Tree Card

Cardstock:  (Calypso Coral) Stampin' Up, Vellum

Stamps:  (Tree from Swirl Christmas, Sentiment from Very Merry Christmas) Hero Arts

Ink:  (VersaFine Onyx Black) Tsukineko

Embossing Powder:  (Opaque Bright White) Wow

Gems:  (Beetle Black assortment mini pearls) Doodlebug

Tea Pot or Magic Lamp?

Jay Gee's Nook's current challenge is to create a card inspired by the above pictures.  I love that tea pot clock and I'm really digging yellow & turquoise these days.  I pulled out a couple of Stampendous stamps and used one to make my own background design and the other to paper piece the tea pot. 

Supplies: Card Blank: Handy Hippo; Cardstock: Bazzil, Paperbilities; Stamps: Stampendous, Elzybells, PTI; Inks: VersaFine Onyx Black, VersaMark; Die: PTI, Nestabilities

When I put this card together and sat back and looked at it I thought, "Huh.  That tea pot kind of looks like a magic lamp."  Then I told myself I was being silly - magic lamps are longer and sleeker and only my silly brain would see this as a magic lamp.  It's quite an obvious card - when you're sick you have a nice cup of tea!  Skip ahead to later in the day and I'm showing the card to my mom.  She looks perplexed for a moment then says, "Oh I get it.  The genie in the lamp will make you feel better right?"  Guess where I inherited that silly brain from??

Thank You Cards

The veterinary hospital where I work is blessed to have a large number of very generous clients (who seem to think we all need fattening up by the amount of cookies, chocolates and gift baskets they have bestowed on us!)  Usually we buy a few boxes of Thank You cards and try to get them written and sent out before the New Year.  I decided to make some myself for us to use this year and was pleased with the result:

Supplies:  Stamps: Hero Arts wreath, Stampendous paw print, PTI sentiment; Ink: Colorbox green & scarlet, Versafine black; Cardblank: The Stamp Pad Co.


I wanted to keep it CAS as I had quite a few to make and I knew I wanted to use the Hero Arts wreath.  Then I had the idea of using red paw prints in place of berries to get the animal theme in there.  Hopefully the clients enjoy them!