Sweet and Snowy

It's almost the end of the month and I've managed to get caught up on the final two Viva la Verve sketches for December. Here’s my card for last week’s sketch. I was inspired by candy canes and actually used a pipe cleaner candy cane on my card.

I used two papers from October Afternoon’s Good Cheer line on my cardfront. The one at the bottom of the card has a candy cane-like stripe in its pattern. They’re stitched to an Kiwi Kiss panel. A strip of red grosgrain ribbon stretches across the panels, hiding the seam between them.

I stamped the “you’re so sweet” sentiment from Verve's Thankful Accents set on a white circle and layered it on a red mat. After that was set on the card, I added the pipe cleaner candy cane, dressed up with a pair of buttons tied together with some red baker’s twine. Everything's set on a white card base that contrasts nicely with the colorful combination of papers. Truly so sweet!

Materials Used:
Thankful Accents stamp set (Verve Stamps); Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, and Whisper White cardstock (Stampin’ Up!); Good Cheer designer paper (October Afternoon); circle dies (Spellbinders); red grosgrain ribbon(Michaels); snowflake button (Blumenthal Lansing); Pure Poppy button (Papertrey Ink); baker’s twine (The Twinery); pipe cleaner candy cane (Joann); sewing machine

And, here's my card for this month's last sketch. It was inspired by the calm before the (snow) storm that I observed on Saturday morning while I was out walking with Chloe the cutie puppy. It was very quiet in our neighborhood--I guess everyone was recovering from their early morning Christmas celebrations. The sky was clear, but the weather forecast hinted that something was coming. It ended up being kind of a false alarm, but none the less, the forecast was my inspiration.

So, I went with it and made a snowy themed card. The "let it snow" sentiment from the Snow Wonderful set is the only stamped part of the card. It's stamped in navy ink on a shimmery white panel for lots of contrast and some sparkle, too.

I used two different patterned papers from a DCWV matstack for the cardfront. The navy strip is accented with a little blue grosgrain ribbon and a snowflake border. I tied a white satin ribbon around it before attaching it to the cardfront. Two snowflake buttons with clear crystals at their centers are the other big element on this card. I'm having a lot of fun finding ways--and spots--to use these buttons!

Materials Used:

Snow Wonderful stamp set (Verve Stamps); Bashful Blue and Shimmery White cardstock, Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon (Stampin' Up!); The Winter Combo matstack (DCWV); oval dies (Spellbinders); snowflake border punch (EK Success); white satin ribbon (Target); snowflake buttons (Blumenthal Lansing); clear crystals (Studio 18)