All the Joy Blog Hop-2!

I am so excited to be joining a dozen talented artists today, celebrating Simon Says Stamp's latest release, All the Joy, at the Simon Blog!  I have used one of the "tweet" new sets, Season's Tweetings, along with a new snow embossing folder and sprig die, to make a couple Christmas cards to share with you for this special day!...

I thought the birds in this stamp set were so cute, but the one above, I found absolutely adorable! Up front, I'm not much of a colorer, but I gave it a go, and no matter, this bird is STILL adorable!!   I colored him in a sparrow kind of coloring, and colored his hat and scarf in red!  I was going to make his hat red and green, but loved the simplicity of red and white!  I layered him and then adhered him between two of the Spruce Sprig die cuts.  I colored the cardstock the sprigs were cut from, with two of the three new shades of green ink, then die cut the sprigs...love how the color turned out...looks like a pine tree!  For the background, I used my brayer, and brayered Simon Fog ink all over the inside flat side of the Soft Snowfall embossing folder.  I tried other grays, but the Fog was the lightest, and that was the look I was going for!  I adhered the sprigs, gluing just the stems(to give the ends some dimension) to the snow, added the bird and the layered sentiment that I had embossed in black(I STILL love the shine of black embossing powder, multitudes of cards later!).  Here's a close up...

The second one, I simply used two of the greenery stems from the set, along with another wonderful sentiment, also from the set!...

These stems looked like mistletoe to me, so I  dotted the berries with white enamel accents, rather than make then red.  I colored the leaves in a kind of softer green, and layered, then arranged them in a kind of flowing way, on light gray cardstock.  When it came to the layout, I decided on popping up the top and bottom panels of the card on either side of the stems.  To use a sentiment from the set, and I think the sentiments have a beautiful font, I chose to partially die cut the sentiment, to have the lower reaching letters go INTO the sprigs' area, not to sit way up on the panel, to be sort of IN with the berries!  So...I cut the panels, leaving some extra room on the top panel, then just ever so slightly partially die cut the sentiment die on the panel.  THEN I stamped the sentiment to fit the curves of the bottom of the die cut panel, stamping with versamark and black embossing...LOVE the shine!  I then fit the berries around all the curves of the sentiment.  I know this card lacks Christmas  pizzazz of color, but I have to tell you...this card makes me happy!  I love it's simplicity and it's flow...true happiness!  Here's a close up...

Okay...I had SO much fun!!  My fun was above, your fun is below!!

Simon is generously giving a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop from our comment sections, so the more hop blogs you comment on, the more chances you will have to win!  Winners will be chosen and posted on the Simon Blog on Wednesday, November 8th, so make sure you check the Simon Blog on the 8th, to see if you are a winner!!  If you are a winner, you can email Simon to claim your prize!

The list of participants in today's hop are listed below...

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Nina-Marie Trapani

Nichol Spohr

Laura Bassen

Suzy Plantamura

Mindy Eggen

                                Lisa Addesa<------You are Here

Cheiron Brandon

Kulbir Kirkland

Miriam Prantner

Dilay Nacar

Barb Engler

Allison Frazier

Channin Pelletier

Two things before I end my post...There was another hop, yesterday, so I hope you will check it out at the Simon Blog HERE!  There is a whole bunch more inspiration and more chances for you to comment and possibly win one of the $25 coupons!  

The second thing, please don't forget about the offer in the banner at the top of my post!  The offer is for a free Simon exclusive Holy Stars Stencil!  There are directions on how to do that in the banner above...follow the three easy steps and the stencil is yours for FREE, until the end of the day on November 5th or until supplies last!!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and please keep on hopping! 

Hugs!  Lisa