Christmas & Birthday

Two big challenges going on right now for two of my favorite companies--PTI and W&W.  I finished a card for each of them last night & hope to make more.  Have to get everything together for the tax person first & then I'll reward myself with a marathon stamping session--haha!
One my most recent PTI purchases included A Wreath for all Seasons which is showcased for the Celebrating 2010 challenge. I pinned a lot of examples including the striking Christmas card made by Dawn.  I hadn't used that particular wreath image yet & I also have the Mat Stack 3 die, so I basically copied her design.

Dies have really spoiled me & Dawn's wreath looked perfectly cut, so I checked to see if I'd missed getting the die. Nope--she had fussy cut & I was pleasantly surprised to discover how easy it was to do.  Rather than stamp, I just added Christmas Red Stickles for the berries. I lightly sponged aqua mist onto the die cut & used my Mini MISTI to do the stamping.  Love how you can use lighter inks for sentiments with that wonderful invention. Now I've opened & used all 3 paper pads I got in the $1 sale--yah!  Buttons are so bulky I decided to stick with enamel dots & fortunately I had the right shade of green.  I'm also entering Christmas Card Challenges, HLS Anything Goes with Dies, SSS Monday (tool is Mini MISTI) & Die Cut Divas.
  
The W&W Leaf Effect die cut has been sitting on my table for a long time, so decided to make it into a card for W&W Ink Smooshing BD Bash challenge.  

The smooshing was done on wc paper with Distress Inks bundled sage & fossilized amber.  I've found it works best for me to do 1 color at a time, drying in between with my heat gun.  I also vary the amount of water for different layers which gives added texture.  The leaf die cut is covered with Elizabeth Craft Champagne glitter, which for some reason did not go on evenly.  I decided to embrace that look--hoping it kind of goes with the smooshing.  The sentiment is an IO die cut which I stacked 6 high & clear embossed. I'm also entering Dies R Us, Seize the Birthday & Word Art Wednesday.  Still catching up on my blog reading--thanks for stopping by.