Sweet Sunday 21

Well, here I am again just squeaking this entry in under the wire for the Sweet Sunday challenge. I'm dedicating this card to my blogger friend, Karen Motz, over at the Paper Playhouse blog. She is an amazing stamper and has kept good on her vow to do one Xmas card a week this year. I always look forward to seeing it and I keep telling her that it is starting to get me motivated to dig out the Xmas stamps and get going on my cards too. Well, here it is, June, and I'm finally motivated! Hey, that's about 5 months earlier than my norm! Anyway, thanks a whole bunch Karen for the motivation and inspiration I get from you everytime I visit your blog. I'm in all of your outstanding talent in card making!

Now for my card. I puzzled over what to use as an image and then I saw this new cardinal stamp from Memory Box (purchased at a local Scrapbook store) staring at me so thought I should try a Xmas in June card with it. These two SU DP's (riding hood red and kiwi kiss) were at the top of my stash of paper and they were the perfect match for my cardinal. The solid green is also kiwi kiss.

Here are the card details: I punched the squares with my 1 inch Emaginations punch, embossed my white cardstock with the "Birds and Swirls" CB embossing folder, stamped my image 3 times with black pigment ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I colored in all 3 images using my prismacolor pencils and gamsol to blend. I embossed over the 2nd and 3rd images with clear embossing powder and versamark to make them nice and shiny and easier to cut out. I cut out and layered one of the cardinals over my original with dimensionals. Then I cut out just the wing and layered that on top the second image for more depth. I colored in the leaves with kiwi kiss and an aqua pen. I stamped extra leaves to add to the sentiment that I printed on my computer and punched out with the SU word window punch. I just love adding sentiments this ways. A little sponging around the edges is all it needs to set it off. I used some "Rhine Studs" I got from Michaels for the holly berries and the corner accents. That's a nesties label behind the cardinal that I just tipped sideways for a different look. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Hope you enjoy it and maybe take away a little motivation to get a jumpstart on Xmas too:))

Thanks for another great sketch Karen!