Warm Winter Wishes Blog Hop

Tonight is my last blog hop as part of the Center Stage Spotlight Design Team. This is the official end to my 'duties' as part of the design team. I'm sad that it has come to end because I really had a blast being on the CSS. I hope to have the chance to do it again sometime or to participate on another design team. I learned a lot and had a great time. I'm really looking forward to finding out who the next lucky group is to be named to the Center Stage Spotlight! I'm sure we'll be hearing soon!

Now on to tonight's blog hop card. Tonight we are featuring the stamp set, Warm Winter Wishes, created by Carolyn King. This is, of course, one of my favorites because it has a snowman in it. I've already mentioned on a previous blog post that I collect snowmen so any stamp set that has one will find its way into my stamp room!

Do you ever find inspiration for your cards in odd places? My card was inspired by a bottle of bath gel that has been in my shower since last holiday season (I guess I don't use the stuff very much! LOL!). I was in the shower this morning thinking about the card I would make for this blog hop and I looked at the bottle and had one of those aha moments! The bath gel is from Bath & Body Works and is called Twisted Peppermint. The gel is a reddish-pink color and the bottle has three triangular trees in silver and red designs with peppermint stripes. For some reason I suddenly saw a card done in those colors with lots of bling. So, that is where the idea for my card was born!

Here it is:

To make this card I used Pure Luxury Rocket Red for the base and Pure Luxury Pure White for the next layer. I stamped the snowflakes onto the white paper with Versamark and then embossed them with a white EP that has silver mixed into it. I used my brayer to ink up the sky using Memento London Fog. All of the designer paper I used on the card is from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly pack. I stamped the coffee mug and two trees onto dp and cut them out. I also stamped the tree on Pure Luxury Silver Lining and cut that out. (The tree stamps are from the fabulous set by Nina Brackett, "Lord of the Season") The ground cover is also a piece of dp from Jolly by Golly that has these great curves in the design so it is perfect for cutting out and using on a card like this. I stamped the snowman with Memento Tuxedo Black onto Pure Luxury Pure White base weight paper, colored him, and cut him out. I purposely used base weight for the snowman because I knew I was going to cut him out and pop him up so I wanted him to be a bit more substantial.

As you can see, I got kind of carried away with all the bling on this card! LOL! It just seemed like it should be 'blingy'! I colored the snowman's scarf, hat, and holly with Spica pens to make them glittery. Even his nose is colored with an orange Spica! The trees have silver and red brads for some of their ornaments and Christmas Red and Frosted Lace Stickles for other ornaments. I used the Frosted Lace Stickles to put snow under the trees and in various places on the ground. I hope you can see all the sparkle in the photo -- it was a bit hard to photograph because of all that sparkle!

For even more inspiration visit Carolyn King - the Illustrator of Warm Winter Wishes and the Idea Center gallery HERE.

Then, check in with Carolyn's special guest designers:

Charlene Merrick

Tina Gilliland

Deb Anton

And, finally stop by these GinaK Designer's blogs participating in the hop tonight:

Cathy Tidwell
Cindy Lawrence
Emily Giovanni
Erika Martin
Jessica Fick
Kurtis Amundson
Lee Murphy
Nina Brackett
Melanie Muenchinger
Tami Mayberry
Theresa Momber

and our CenterStage Spotlight Team:

Joy Hadden
Kay Simmons
Linda Payne
Lori McAree

GinaK will be giving away a copy of Warm Winter Wishes on her blog tonight - so pop over there to leave your comment on her blog for your chance to win the set for free! (If you've already purchased the stamp set, we can swap it out for another GinaK stamp set valued at $19.95 or less.)