Landscaping Challenge #1 down...23 to go!!

Happy (late) New Year!! I really wanted to post yesterday...made a cute little card over the weekend...but that will have to wait! Because yesterday I made a REALLY cute card (you know, in my opinion)!

Have you heard that Laurel Beard (card making extarordinaress - you like my word making abilities don’t ya!?!) Has started a new challenge blog called - LAWNSCAPING?? It's based on the fabulous Lawn Fawn Stamps!!! What?!? You hadn’t heard? Or maybe you have? Ok, well enough of that! Yes, my friends. She has. They are doing two challenges a month (1st and 3rd Mondays of the month, each running for a week)... and there will be prizes... and you must (should) use Lawn Fawn Stamps for the challenges! Oh yeah, that's my kinda challenge!! I always have so much fun playing with my Lawn Fawn Stamps!!!

Ok, so go read *this* post for the 411,which will share this challenge’s theme...SNOW...

So at first, I was thinking, “ok, I can’t think of anything to do for this, so I wont be participating in the first challenge :(, but that’s ok, I guess”. I mean, I’ve seen snow once in the past 20 yrs, and I don’t even have the Frosties Stamps set - (that set is ideal for this challenge if you ask me - it’s the BEST snowflake stamp set I've ever seen!!!!). Buuuut then I got home and was determined to at least come up with SOMETHING. Even if it wasn't that great, I was determined to try. This is what I came up with: Here's a better picture (where you can the the Kaleidoscope in all it's sparkley, snowy splendor): Ok, so, yesterday, my daughter Alivia came home with a little craft she made in preschool. It was a giant foam heart with two (also foam) mittens on it that had her little hand prints finger painted onto them. On it, it said "Cold Hands, Warm Heart" - and AAAAHHHHH...inspiration struck!!! I knew I'd have to used Critters in the Burbs with the sentiment "Cold Paws...Warm Hearts" - perfect.

But I still had no idea what exactly I wanted to do for the card. Initially, I was thinking snowy hills of some sort... to me that seemed "right". But, I wanted to push myself a little, I guess. I recently got (at Michaels 50% off - yay)!! the Hero Arts Dots & Flowers Background stamp and have been dying to use it. I figured if I heat embossed that with Kaleidoscope embossing powder it'd look all sparkly & "snowy" right?!? I love the result!! I kept toying with the idea of hills/snow, but in the end, I decided that I'd use this background as the snowy sky and made grass with my new Martha Stewart "fringe" scissors (thank you Santa). All of the patterned (non-white) paper is Basic Grey's Oliver paper - which I'm officially in love with. I've had it forever (ok, a few months) and haven't touched it!

At first, I had planned to Copic color the critters (I planned to used the cat & dog from the set).... then I thought they should be "patterned", so I was going to go with Basic Grey's Max & Whiskars paper (for the warmer colors)... In the end, I decided it's totally cool (and perfectly cute!) to have blue plaid, checkered, and spotty critters!! I used Kelly Marie's trick (first time) and ran my black Copic marker around the paper pieced image - and WOW it really pops!!! Then I stamped my (perfectly selected) sentiment onto Oliver paper that I punched out using the fabulous EK Success "Real Estate" sign, used Colorbox (black) chalk ink to give it some "pop", and finished it off with Twine from The Twinery attached to the card with the Tiny Attacher. I'm really happy with this card - like, super happy. I'm giving it to my Grandma for her birthday (Jan. 11 - perfect!). She lives in Upstate New York & I think it's perfect for her!

I used 3 Lawn Fawn Sets to make it: Critters in the Burbs, Jessie's ABCs, and the heart in the sentiment is from Just my Type II. I'm really proud of it because I really was at a loss here. I had no clue what to do. Then when I got my idea and was running with it, the card just wouldn't come together to my liking. Instead of giving up, I added the 2 bunnies and stamped the sentiment onto this tag (as opposed to a banner). Then I added the twine and VOILA!

So, it really was a challenge and I think I "brought it" ;). I hope you all have a happy stampy day. Go join the challenge! It's fun!! There's a Lawn Fawn Stamp Set of your choice up for grabs if you win - that's motivations enough for me!!!!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah
Patterned paper: Basic Grey - Oliver
Punch: EK Success - Real Estate Sign
Scissors: Martha Stewart "fringe" scissors
Ink: Momento (for images/sentiment) & Versamark (for embossing) & Versamagic (for Red Heart)
Stamps:
Background: Hero Arts - Dots & Flowers
Critters/alphas/heart: Lawn Fawn - Critters in the Burbs, Jessie's ABCs, and Just My Type IITwine: The Twinery
Staples: Tim Holtz, Tiny Attacher
Embossing Powder: Stampedous, Kaleidoscope
Glue Dots