Joy for You Blog Hop~Day 1!

I am so honored and thrilled to be a part of today's Simon Says Stamp blog hop, over at the Simon Blog, celebrating their newest release, Joy for You!  I have used one of the beautiful new dies from this release, in a couple slightly different ways, to make a couple Christmas cards to share with you, today!...

This first card I used the wreath in it's simplist form.  I started with a white die cut , and brushed on a soft green ink.  I used the little berry dies, and die cut the berries from red cardstock.  I dotted them with glossy accents to give them more the look of berries.  I stamped a sentiment with versamark and silver embossed.  Here's a close up...

The second one, made from the same die...

Truth be told, this card was a makeover.  I have the original card under the close up, below.  I die cut all the leaves, brushed on color to the leaves, then attached them and layered and glossy accented berries to the leaves.  I had three sets of three berries on three leaves with the original, and know the rule of "threes", but just kept thinking that it looked kind of "bare" up next to the ribbon.  So...I took all the leaves off the wreath, die cut and glossy accented three more berries, and gave the wreath four sets of berries, as I reattached all the leaves.  This is just one of the things I love about cardmaking...you can take things apart and rebuild or redo...most times. Here's a close up.  

Here's the original.  Even after  making the card as I thought it should be, I still kind of like this one(so does my daughter)...what do you think??  The leaves jusst didn't make for five sets of berries, so it was either three or four...

Okay...as I always like to say, I had SO much fun making my cards..I have been in such a wreath making mood, these days...such 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, please check the Simon Blog after the hops, 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
Barbara Tarayao
Emily Midgett
Nicky Meek
Sandi MacIver
Nichol Spohr
Tina Smith
Heather Ruwe
                                Lisa Addesa<------You are Here!
Miriam Prantner
Lea Lawson
Barb Engler
Maura Hibbitts
Caryn Davies
Kim Taylor

Just to let you know...as you read in the title of this post, this is day 1 of 2 blog hops, celebrating this release!  SO...there will be another blog hop tomorrow...and that gives you not only more projects with wonderful inspiration, but also more chances to win one of the $25 coupons from Simon!  Hope you will hop along and join the fun and inspiration! ALSO...don't forget the offer in the banner at the top of the post!  You will automatically receive the exclusive and*not yet released* The Joy of Snow stamp set, when you make any purchase from the Joy for You release/collection!  The offer is only good until the end of the day on November 8th, while supplies last, so don't wait!  Thank you so much for stopping by and "keep hopping"...hugs!  

      Lisa