My "Kids" Know That Christmas is Coming!

Are you ready for the holidays? Not me...I can even think of Christmas quite yet since I haven't gotten through Thanksgiving yet! But, I have 2 beagles and 3 kitties and I can image that if I had a fireplace, this is what it would look like since they get a stocking full of treats every Christmas morning and my beagles can smell treats even through the packaging! Last year my larger beagle jumped up and snagged the stocking hanging on the bookcase and began eating his way through the packaging and my little girl beagle was more than happy to help him. As I chased them through the house trying to get the packaging from them so they didn't eat it and get sick or choke, they darted through the pet door and then gave me my morning exercise of running through the backyard in my pajamas and socks, which got soaking wet from the morning dew.

No, I don't have a pet mouse--pretend it's a kitten. I love this Lili of the Valley stamp because of the detail.  I purchased it over a year ago and I never colored it [hanging my head in shame]. I have so many stamps and not enough time to even color them all. I look at it like this: I'm collecting everything I need so that when I retire and don't have any money, I won't need to buy anything to make cards or scrapbook. [I am such a  liar...I always need something....] Meanwhile, I'll continue to 'collect' lace, ribbon, shiny embellishments [I was a crow in a former life], paper, paper flowers and stamps that have never seen an ink pad. The only items LESS than a year old on this card are the Frantage used on the snowflake charm and the Spellbinder die of the poinsettias.

I embossed my background tan paper and then sanded it so the snowflakes would be white. I made my poinsettia with my Spellbinders die and put a pretty gold edged pearl brad in the center of it. I outlined each petal of my poinsettia and leaves with Diamond Sparkles glitter by PSX Designs...a pretty transparent glitter with a gold hue. The sentiment stamp is by Whimsy and the snowflake charm has been embossed with Shabby White Frantage embossing powder. The snowflake border die is by Memory Box and I sewed it on my card and I added glitter to each slowflake.  Here's a close up of my image that was colored with Copics.

The challenge this week at the Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog is CHRISTMAS IS COMING. The anticipation, the shopping, the wrapping of presents, putting up the tree...things that represent that Christmas is coming should be portrayed in your card.

Our weekly sponsor is Cuddly Buddly who has donated a generous £10 voucher and our monthly sponsor is the Ribbon Girl who has also donated a generous £10 voucher.  These two sponsors have fabulous on-line shopping!

The gals at the Sweet Stampin' Challenge Blog have made some awesome cards to inspire you, so please stop by and take a look and consider making a card for the topic "Christmas is Coming".

                                                                          Hugs,
                                                                          Gail

This card is entered in the following challenges:
Craftitude Challenge, Love to Create, Love to Scrap! Challenge Blog, Great Impressions, Sparkle N Sprinkle Creative Challenge, One Crazy Stamper, Craft-dee Bowz, Christmas Cards All Year Around, Crafty Hazlenuts Challenge Extra for November, The Artistic Stamper Creative Team, Penny Black At All Sorts, Polkadoodle, Oldie But a Goodie, The Squirrel and the Fox, Crafty Little Fairies,