Joyful Season Stampin'Up!

Did you nearly wash away on Halloween?  I can't remember a wetter Halloween, can you?  The grandchildren were troopers, though, and braved the rain, as did their parents.  John and I stayed warm and dry and handed out candy to other brave little souls who ventured out. Now November has arrived, and you know what that means!  The holidays will soon be upon us, so we'd better get our Big Shots in gear and get going on some cards for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

If you'd like to be inspired to make some great Thanksgiving cards to send to those far-away friends and relatives that you won't be seeing on Thanksgiving, I've got two open spots for my Give Thanks class next Saturday, November 7th.  It's a Soup-er Saturday, which means I'll be serving a soup and salad lunch at 11:30.  After lunch we'll get started on the five projects.  Of course we'll end the afternoon with dessert and door prizes.  Please send me a quick email if you'd like to attend.  The cost is $20 or the class is free with a $40 purchase.

Let me show you the card for today...

This design was inspired by a card I received at a recent demonstrator shoe box swap from Marcy Daniels, and I've also seen a similar card on the internet.  This is the version we made recently at the October Stamp Out Stress gathering.  

The card base is Mossy Meadow and it measures 7 1/2 in. by 4 1/4 in. It is scored at 3 3/4.  The white panel for the front of the card is 4 inches by 3 1/2 inches.  This panel is embossed with the  Boughs and Berries embossing folder that's on page 30 of the holiday catalog. The sentiment comes from the very versatile stamp set called Holly Jolly Greetings on page 34 of the holiday catalog.  The words in this set can be combined to create all sorts of greetings, which makes this set a keeper.

The circles were cut with the Circle Collection Framelits and of course the cardinal comes from the Joyful Season stamp set on page 29 of the holiday catalog.  The cardinal outline and branch were stamped in Early Espresso, then the cardinal body was stamped in Cherry Cobbler. I colored his beak with my Hello Honey marker. I used the snowflakes from Snow Place stamped in Pool Party to give a nice frosty look to the background.  If you're a fan of glitter, you could add some to the snowflakes for an even frostier look.  Some of that great Thick Baker's Twin in Cherry Cobbler provides the finishing touch.  

I hope your November and your week are off to a great, if soggy, start and I hope I've inspired you to get out your stamps and stamp something pretty today!
Hugs to all,
Susan