MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

This is my Christmas card to everyone who comes to my blog.  Merry Christmas!  I do hope you know the true meaning of Christmas ...............and whose's birthday it is.  ")    My favorite Christmas hymn is:  "O Come, O Come, Emanuel!"   And, Emanuel means:  God with us.  When that babe was born in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago, it was the beginning of "God with us" in a way that the human existence had never known.  Today we can have that experience in a very personal way:  believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.   I pray you all will have a Very Merry Christmas as you experience the love and joy of being with your family and friends.  And, heres to a better New Year for all of us!   My love to you all, sharon/inkybru of inkybruSTUDIO

Published in Stampers' Sampler Dec/Jan2011 issue

This is the cover of the Stampers' Sampler that I was published in for Dec/Jan 2011.   Andrea Ockey Parr from Farmington, Utah, had her Tempting Template submission put on the cover.  Congratulations! to you, Andrea.  It is a lovely card........love the colors!....and the image is so precious!  (the bird is from Inque Boutique and the elf/sentiment is from Stampin' Up!)   This is one of the prettiest cards I have seen in quite a while.  Lots of good stuff in this issue.................if you can still find one, buy it!

This is the other card on the next page.  It is a Get Well card.......I don't know why they didn't pull it up enough to show the sentiment.  This is some more of the SEI paper..........love the coordinating papers in the pack.  ")   I used a pink corrugated strip across the top of the card to mount the flower on and drew the leaves and colored them in with a metallic watercolor pen.  Also used lime green corrugated piece behind the flower on the ribbon.

This is a view of the inside of the envelope, too.
The swirl stamp is by Rhonna Farrar of Autumn Leaves (?).........    The photos of the cards out of the envelopes were taken before I sent these submission to Stampington.  I try very hard to remember to photograph everything I send as a submission because I very rarely have them returned...........cards, that is.  If I send in a book or a journal, I send postage money so it can be returned to me. 

This little card was on the next page.  I love this little girl image .......another B-Line Design stamp.
I stamped her 2X and cut the dress out of the decorative paper and layered it over the little girl image.  She just looks like she might be missing someone.  ")   Sentiments are by Stampin' Up!
This paper is by SEI (Mimosa) and the page that has the little flowers on it is just loaded with them.  They are perfect to cut out and layer..and snip so you can curl them up and make them look three dimensional.

Three cards on one page!  Stamps on this page were B-Line Designs (Beverly Seymore) and Stampin' Up!  I just loved the image of the man and woman kissing and they were dressed in black and white.  So, I thought "Wedding!  The embossed white paper I used for the ribbon around the envelope on this one is a piece I had been saving of ages...........and it was just perfect for a wedding congrats! 

The Birthday Girl is one of my favorite images from B-Line.  The envelope is a flocked cardstock.

The paper I used for "family reunion" is from Scenic Route......
alas, it is no more :(..........I bought several of Sarah Milne's craft papers that have a design running up the left side of the papers.  This one had a tree and just begged for those little birds of Beverly's to be stamped onto it.  ")    I used one of Allie Gower's "Metal Works" flowers for the center of the ribbon.............and they didn't even give her credit for it!!!  I've
sent in several cards to Stampington with her Metal Works on them and this was the first they've published.  (sorry, Allie :( 

I think this is my favorite card that I made for this challenge.  (Catherine Moore stamps, of course!
I stamped the lady three times to get skin tone, the dress and the bowtie; then, I cut the dress and tie and layered over the skin tone image.  I used Copic markers to color in the hair and face features.  And, then stamped the tea tray from the same papers as the dress and used it to embellish the paper ribbon around the envelope.  (These are my very favorite colors!)