The world is your snowball...

Edited for questions: Kerry asked: I have a quick question about embossing w/ your nesties. Do you do it at the same time that you cut or run it through a second time?Thanks! When using Spellbinder's Nestabilities, you do the cutting first with the thin, white spacer plate. Then to do the embossing, you place the cut paper with the die still in place back through the machine.......this time using the tan embossing mat on top....cutting side of the die facing up.

Also, I've been asked how I keep a Nestabilities Die Template centered over an already stamped image while cutting. This can be tricky because the dies can shift a little. My little tip is to place a small piece of clear tape over the metal die and overlap it onto the paper which will become the scrap/negative cut paper. This keeps the die right where I want it while running it through the machine. Hope that helps!

As I'm writing this post, I'm snuggled up in warm clothes and Eric has a nice fire roaring in the fireplace. The wind is blowing really hard and it's a bit nippy outside! My beautiful flowers that have lasted so long this year will most likely be wilted tomorrow. Eric made sure to unscrew the hoses from the house. He made a final swipe of the tallest grass around the house with the lawn mower. We put away the summer clothes and brought out the jackets and sweat suits. I've brought out my soup recipes. Eric brought the wood rack up to the back deck. What's all this mean? Winter is on it's way to Kansas! Tonight it's supposed to get down to below freezing...the weather man says 29 degrees. So as much as I don't like the cold, I do love that we get to experience all four seasons here in Kansas. So I might as well not complain, cuz winter is going to come whether I like it or not.

Sooo, I thought I would get started on some wintry cards for the upcoming holiday season. I'll be showing you lots of cards that I'll be adding to my stash. I figure if I make a card a day I'll be all set by the time December rolls around.

Today I'm using some new Karen Lockhart stamps called Itty Bitty Snow Buddy and Itty Bitty Mittens. I wanted my focal image to be bigger than the space that just one Itty Bitty stamp fills up so I decided to stamp a series of the images to make one big focal point. I tied all three images together by using a Papertrey sentiment. Then I cut out my image with Spellbinder's long rectangle dies and a long scallop rectangle die. I used the tan mat to emboss each layer which added a lot of texture and dimension to my card. My images were color with my trusty Copic Sketch markers and I used a white gel pen to create the polka dots on the mittens. The stamped images tie in nicely with the snowmen patterned paper by My Mind's Eye. I added a final embellishment of a glittered snowflake punch.
Wanna learn how to color some awesome snowmen this winter? Check out Marianne's blog post HERE to learn more about coloring a snowman. She has some great tips that you will definitely want to check out.

Okay, I'm off to snuggle up with a good magazine by the fire. Have a great week everyone! And hey, don't forget about Halloween! We can't forget about all the trick or treaters this week. My girls are getting excited. And me too, I can't wait to follow them around town while it's like 30 degrees!!!!!! Yeehaw!