Sneak Peek: "Life is Good" & "Warm and Wonderful"

Welcome back!! Our first preview tonight is of Theresa Momber's "Life is Good" set! While Theresa has included a snow covered cabin perfect for winter, there are a number of other greetings and images in this set that allow for cards year round. When I saw the steam train, though, I couldn't resist making an extra Christmas-y card with it, based on "The Polar Express" by Chris Van Allsburg! Most anyone receiving this card would recognize the nod to that celebrated holiday classic. :) The train fits perfectly into the "Festive Frame" window, with the poinsettias setting the holiday tone, and the borders are reminiscent of framed up illustrations in a book.
After coloring the frame and train (I took some liberties on the colors here not being a "train expert" LOL! as well as adding a little wreath to the front with a green ring and red dots) , I reverse masked the oval so I could sponge blue ink around the edges to make the stormy winter night. I cut a little diagonal beam from scratch paper to sponge around the create the light coming from the front of the train. Add falling snow with the Inkssentials white pen. The nail heads around the frame and on the bell make wonderful "train bling" rivets! Last I added the "Believe", the theme of the story, this greeting is from "Botanical Dreams". This is a two layer card, using Pure Luxury White and In the Navy. I just love this set! Thursday night at the party I will have sample using that cabin I mentioned... ;)

"Warm & Wonderful" has all these snuggly knit images in it, and I noticed the rounded cap would be SO cute plunked on top of die cut heart (made from Cosmo Cricket Jolly by Golly DP) I stamped both this cap and my scarf onto Rocket Red CS, which has the ribbed texture, perfect for knitwear!) accented with White Inksenntials pen. The scarf I cut in two so I could have it hanging over the other side. It may be a bit difficult to see, but if you click for a closeup I stamped the argyle from Gina's "Ribbon Stripes" over each in red for a subtle tone on tone look , this gives these images some additional knit texture! Now my bundled heart on the scalloped square goes perfectly with this greeting "You warm my heart" from the set. I stamped snowflakes from the set onto the new Pure Luxury Ocean Mist and added some adhesive rhinestones to a couple of the flakes centers.

For even more ways to use these fabulous stamp sets, please check tonight's featured Illustrator's blog:

Theresa Momber {Life is Good}

Then, visit our Designer's blogs participating in the previews tonight:

GinaK,
Carolyn,
Cathy,
Cindy,
Donna,
Emily,
Erika,
Jessica,
Lee,
Lynn,
Melanie,
Nina

We also have one of our special Center Stage Spotlight Designer joining tonight:

Peggy Wainman