So, my life is crazy.

These last few weeks have been crazy. First, we had the babies' birthday party, which went so well, but took quite a bit of preparation. Then my cousin, who is also my bff, got married two weeks later and utilized my crafty skills to help decorate. I was happy to help her, thrilled to be her matron of honor, honored that she trusted me to make such high profile items for her big day, but.... It was a lot of work haha. Between my design team commitments and crafting for these recent events, then traveling with my mom, hubby, and babies five states away to attend the wedding, I've not had the time to play with the copious amounts of Christmas supplies I've been purchasing over the last couple of months like I wanted. Well, last weekend my friend and fellow PTI addict came over for a crafty afternoon, and I decided to dedicate those few hours to my PTI Christmas supplies that have been calling to me.

My first card (I'll blog about the other one later) was very heavily inspired by a card that Nichole Heady showed during one of the release countdowns. I used my favorite Hero Arts Hand Drawn Snowflakes background stamp to heat emboss the snowflakes on Fabriano hot press watercolor card stock using the new Hero Arts White Satin embossing powder. (That stuff is seriously so incredibly gorgeous. Wow.) I then used my ink blending tool and Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Salty Ocean. I started with the lightest shade (Tumbled Glass) and blended it in the center of the panel, leaving the very center empty. I then blended a halo of Broken China around that, and finally finished with the Salty Ocean around the edges. I went back in with the Tumbled Glass and Broken China and blended the colors more seamlessly, and added a touch of the color to that empty center, still keeping  the very center the lightest shade of blue. I then die cut the Let It Snow sentiment from cobalt card stock and covered it with glossy accents after adhering it to my panel. A couple of  Glass Slippers and Light Blue Topaz sequins from The Ton finished it off.

I hope you enjoyed this card as much as I enjoyed creating it! I love having low-key crafty sessions where I can just play. Good for the creative spirit. I hope that, now that my big crafting commitments have been completed, I can have more moments of just plain crafty fun in my craft room. Have a wonderful day, friends!