Be Merry and Bright and Thinking of Dawn

Hello, Stamplings!

I hope you are having a lovely weak end! I understand there are exercises for that but as I always say, I can't see back there so it doesn't bother me that mine is fluffy ~ as long as it can hold me up for hours and hours of crafting! 

Let's start out today with this schparkly number:

Really? A zebra pattern for a Christmas card? You'll see why in a minute. 

This is my week to be hostess of the Inspired By All the Little Things challenge. As hostess, I get to pick a talented card artist to introduce to you and she, in turn, will make you an inspiring work of art! 

For this challenge, I have chosen my friend, Colleen of One Smile Lifts A Spirit! For all the details on the rules and to see what Colleen and the amazing Design Team have created to inspire you, please click over to the challenge! We all hope you can join us this week!!

Here is the fantastic photo inspiration that inspired us all: ⇨

There are LOTS of goodies in this photo to get your creative juices flowing! I think you can quickly spy that I was attracted to that awesome zebra chair and bright red pillow! I've had the zebra paper in my stash since the last century, waiting for this moment to shine! The MFT stitched star was cut from glittery foam paper.

Challenges

• Pixie's Snippets Playground: AG using your snippets.
• The Merry Christmas Challenge #41: Anything Goes.

I loved the way my design used a lot of pp, so I made a few more. Some of the stars are cut from fun foam adhesive sheets which adds a puffy soft dimentia, like the card on the far right. You can find them online in many places. Here is a link to Mike's to see what I mean. The sheets also come glittered, like the star on the second card from the left.

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My twofer today was made specially for designer Dawn McVey. 

Here is a closeup of all the white glossiness.

Many of you know Dawn from her beautifully designed Raspberry Suite line of stamps for Papertrey Ink. Dawn recently underwent a small intestine transplant. It is very rare. The surgery was a success, but she has a long recovery ahead of her. The ladies of Papertrey Ink are holding a one-week blog hop in honor of Dawn to send her our love and best wishes for a full recovery and to let her know she is in our thoughts and prayers. 

The only stipulation for joining in the hop is that you use one of Dawn's many incredible designs for your card. You can find Dawn's complete line of stamps here and find her works of art using them over on her Raspberry Suite blog. For my simple card, I used Dawn's Meadow Greens set. ETA: Oops, I just found out the Meadow Greens set was designed by Nicole. I will make another card for Dawn.

Julian Rad Photography                  

Challenges

• Cardz 4 Galz: Favourite Flower and Why. If I'm honest, I don't care for dandelions in their flower stage, but when they mature and go to seed and form their fluffy perfect circles, I love them. Even as an adult, I will stop and pluck them when I can, blowing their seeds to the wind! I took this photo at our local park this past spring.
• Watercooler Wednesday: Feminine AG.

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Enjoy your day!  No, seriously, enjoy!  LITS!* 

You're a trooper if you made it to the end, especially this time of year when you are extra busy and I appreciate it very much! As always, thank you for coming by to visit the Playhouse and special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower!  Please let me know you came by so I can be sure to return the flavor!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling: Click CTL + Home. Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post. Click page down to reach  the end of the post. Click Comments and the pop-up box opens. Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel! P.S. If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me your email address so I can respond. Mwah!