CSS Inspiration Hop and Farewell

Today is a CSS Inspiration Hop, and it is also a farewell because this is the last of the blog hops by this group. The Stamp TV Center Stage Spotlight alumni are crafters who were selected to be guest designers for Gina K Designs monthly stamp releases. While the CSS ended quite some time back, those who had been part of it were asked to do blog hops from time to time. It has been a great deal of fun since I was selected back in the fall of 2009. I nearly fainted when I got the email from Gina saying I had been chosen and was sure she must have gotten the wrong person! LOL! I've met a lot of very talented and lovely people through this group and will miss our hops. We'll all still be around at Stamp TV (and might even have a few blog hops of our own, you never know!). Now it's time to get on with this last hop …

I hope you came here from my super talented friend Karen's blog. I'm sure she had something fabulous to share with you! If you didn't and would like to start the hop at the beginning, just head back over to Stamp TV to find the list of all the participants.

Here is the inspiration photo we used to get our creative juices flowing.

Isn't it gorgeous? I had an idea the minute I saw it, and here it is in the form of a card.

For some reason, when I saw the inspiration photo I immediately pictured a snow covered tree outside a window. I hope you can see the "snow" and the sparkle on the tree. I stamped the tree in Gina K Designs Christmas Pine ink and heat set it. I added colored "ornaments" to the tree with my Spica markers and then took a glue pad and pressed it down over the tree (that was why I heat set the ink. Didn't want it to smear when I used the glue over it). I sprinkled Stampin' Up Iridescent Ice glitter over the entire thing to make it look like a snow storm outside the window. The card base is GKD  Pure Luxury Christmas Pine, the sparkly layer is some glitter paper I had in my stash, and the patterned paper is from the GKD pack called Blizzard. The window is the Grand Madison Window die from Poppy Stamps. Greeting and tree stamps are from the Gina K Designs set called Cheers.

Thanks for hopping by today and for the many other hops we have had. Enjoy the rest of the hop by heading on over to see the beautiful creation(s) Linda has for you, but before you go be sure to leave a comment here (and at each of the blogs) because we will choose a random comment and that stamper will win a grab bag of Gina K. Designs products! Look for the announcement on Tuesday, December 24.

Happy Holidays!