My design was inspired by a birthday card by Heather Summers from the Simply My Digital Studio Challenge group on Facebook. I switched out the kit and used different embellishments.

My one cheat is the butterflies. No amount of recoloring the butterfly embellishment from the Spring to Life Kit was giving me a butterfly that looked appropriately Lucky Limeade. If I were patient, I could have colored in the butterfly using the Freeform Tool. As it happens, I’m not that patient. I took the butterfly to Photoshop, used the magic wand, and refilled the butterfly in Lucky Limeade. Its mat outline is Always Artichoke.

It’s an 8″ by 8″ scrapbook page (Be of Good Cheer Kit) converted to a 4.25″ by 5.5″ card. I removed the photo box and stitching (it wasn’t wide enough and pixelated when I stretched it), widened the red ribbon slightly, added a new straight stitching embellishment, and exported it as a JPEG. Then I added that JPEG to a photo box on a new page so that I could add a mat, and, ta-duh, a card. I’m sure this is cheating.

The wrapper uses embellishments from the Celebrate Easter Ensemble. The row of eggs was cropped from the name card.

I made a 2″ by 4″ rectangle (the size of the labels I was going to print on), and then I filled it with Downtown Grunge DSP #1. The yummy food is Smores from the Under the Stars set, stamped in Early Espresso. I used the Freeform tool to color in the marshmallow in Very Vanilla and the Chocolate in Chocolate Chip (of course). The main sentiment is S’more Great Moments from the Happy Camper Memories set, also stamped in Early Espresso. I typed the text across the bottom (“with the Archives Group”) in the font Kristen ITC, 22 point, in Early Espresso.

Supply List

• Marina Mist Grosgrain Ribbon
• Christmas Cheer – snowflake 6
• Marina Mist Grosgrain Ribbon – knot
• Winter Wonders – hello snow stamp
• Get It Done – punch 3
• Christmas Cocoa II – designer series paper, pattern 3

It’s essentially the same as last year’s sign, but with MDS2 I was able to color in Santa’s boots, make his eyes blue, make his gloves Gumball Green, and color in his belt Basic Black. The Santa is 24 from 25 & Counting stamp brush set. I colored the number 24 with Whisper White so that it wasn’t visible, though the Presents (an embellishment from Candy Cane Lane) hide it fairly well without that.

The card is ever so slightly hybrid. I colored in Santa’s face and ears with a Pink Pirouette marker. That was so much easier than piecing punches behind his face and ears.

I slipped the card into a clear envelope to protect it from the weather, and put it up on the door frame with some Command Strips. Now we’re ready for those holiday deliveries and visitors!

Here is the supply list for the card:

• Background: Christmas Cheer – pattern 4 at 30% opacity
• Stamps:
  • Ornament Keepsakes – ornament 8, using Watermark setting
  • Year End Review – 6 tree, 15 years, in Real Red
  • Year End Review – 4, in Not Quite Navy
  • Year End Review – 2, in Gumball Green
• Embellishments:
  • Snow Festival Countdown – ornaments (from the Remember December CD)
  • Twinkling Joy – lights
• Punches
  • Candy Cane Lane – pattern 1
  • Rounded Corner Punch, filled with Whisper White, with a Not Quite Navy Mat

The stamp that I used for the sentiment is actually much larger than what appears on the card:

I added this stamp six times and then cropped it to get just the portion I needed:

1. The word “Very”
2. The word “Thankful”
3. The word “For”
4. The letter “Y”
5. The letter “O”
6. The letter “U”

Here is the supply list for the card:

• Background: Very Vanilla
• Stamps:
  • Very Very Thankful
    - very thankful (cropped and stamped multiple times for the sentiment)
  • Grateful Heart Thanksgiving
    • Leaf 2
    • Leaf 3
    • Leaf 4
    • Leaf 5
    • Leaf 6
    • Leaf 7
    • Leaf 8
    • Inside Leaf
• Embellishments:
  • Very Very Thankful – Turkey
  • Fan Fair – stitching black corner 1 (re-colored to Early Espresso)
• Colors:
  • Background Punches: Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzaz, River Rock, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke
  • Leaf Backgrounds: Daffodil Delight, So Saffron, Tangerine Tango, Peach Parfait, Cherry Cobbler
  • Leaf Overlay Stamps & Sentiment: Early Espresso

Here is the supply list for the card:

• Background: Monster Munchies – Paper 1
• Element Backgrounds:
  • Monster Munchies – Paper 2 (behind spiders)
  • Monster Munchies – Paper 3 (behind owl)
  • Monster Munchies – Paper 5 (behind sentiment)
  • Monster Munchies – label 3 (behind pumpkin and cat)
• Stamps:
  • Monster Munchies – happy boo
  • Pumpkin Patch – element 1, face 2, and element 3 (part of MDS install)
  • Spooky Bingo Bits – black cat (white oval punch behind stamp to color eyes)
• Embellishments:
  • Monster Munchies – owl 2
  • Monster Munchies – small spider (twice)
  • Pumpkin: oval punches in 3 sizes with default mat