It's A Double Day And Some News!

 Hello bloggers!  I believe it is going to be a "Believe" sort of day with both cards featuring the Believe die!  The first one up mixes it with all sorts of holly elements.  I started with a milk piece of card and used the Swirling Holly embossing folder to add texture to my background.  I cut a strip of decorative paper from my stash that had a holly motif to it and added it to the bottom of my card.  Next I stamped the Holly bow stamp using both Forest Moss and Crushed Olive distress markers and colouring directly on to the stamp with them.  I stamped all the pieces on to milk card and cut them out with the Classic bow die set and assembled it to create a 3D bow for my card.  I cut a strip of milk card and stamped off my bow stamp to create a very faint holly pattern.  I matted it with olive card and added it between the sections of my card.  I glued the bow in to the very centre of it.  For my focal element, I cut a Decorative Frame from the California Collection out of milk card.  I inked it with Antique Linen before removing it from the die. I cut two of the Believe die in milk card and one in olive green card.  I glued the two milk die cuts together and then offset the olive green one behind it for a shadow.  I glued it in to the centre of my die cut.  I cut a couple of holly pieces out of the Holly Accessory kit and added the open Holly piece (from the same set)on top in the same green.  I cut some of the berries out of red card and glued them to it and then added the finished hollies on the top and bottom of my focal element.  I finished the card with a pierced milk mat, a thin olive green mat and a final milk mat.  I added a couple of flatback pearls and a small pearl swirl to complete the card.  The finished dimensions are 6 3/4" x  8 1/4" in size.  Scroll down for card number two.

 This second card has a completely different feel to it I think so that is why I thought it would be good to show them together.  I started with the background and stamped the Justrite Snowflakes all over the background using a Clear Perfect Medium on to blue card.  I covered it with a sticky adhesive sheet and then coated it with Iced Snow for a frosty feel.  It is difficult to see the stamped images in my pics, you have to really look for them, but they show up ever so nicely in real life!  Next I embossed some white card with the Frosty Swirls embossing folder.  Just to be a bit different, I hand cut the edge following along some of the swirls.  I added mounting foam to the back and adhered it to my snowy background.  I cut several snowflakes from the 2012 Snowflake Pendant in both blue and white and layered them up to create two snowflakes for the side of the card.  I cut the Believe die several times out of coconut white card and stacked them and glued the together.  This gives the appearance of being raised for dimension without having to use mounting foam.  I glued it to the upper corner of the card.  I completed this card with a white pierced mat, a thin blue mat and a final white mat.  The finished dimensions are 7 1/2" x  8 3/4" in size.  Happy Double Day!

  Now for my news!  I recently had an email from Crafts Beautiful Magazine to say that I had been nominated in their Best Blog category of the 2014 Craft Awards!  I was very excited to hear that, especially since the nominations come from their readers!  The voting is official open now so it would be lovely if I could persuade you to go over to the Crafts Beautiful website to cast your vote  for me in that category! Creative Expressions has also been nominated for several different categories as well including best sticking product, best paint range to best stamp range.  Here is a link to the voting:
http://www.crafts-beautiful.com/craftawards/

 All for now, Sue x