Merry Monday #270 - Tic Tac Toe!

Hi everyone - time for what would've been my last post as a Merry Monday Guest Designer. This past four months went so quickly and I thank the Merry Monday Team for the opportunity! I enjoyed it sooooo much!! So much that I jumped at the invitation to continue as a Guest Designer with the other fabulous guests! You will see me in 2018 after the Merry Monday team takes a one-week break for Christmas - yay!!

For Challenge #270, the last one of 2017, Kelly has a fun Tic Tac Toe for us to play:

I found it hard to pick which line to choose - all the options are such fun! Ended up doing the upper left to lower right diagonal: Stamping - Ribbon or Twine - Buttons or Brads. I employ stamping quite a bit on my cards so that was a no-brainer. It seems like ages since I've used buttons on a card - they were all the rage a few years ago and I have plenty laying around!! Decided they needed some love so that meant ribbon had to make an appearance. Plenty of that around here too! Here's what I created:

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Poptone Sno-cone; Basic Grey 25th & Pine; Paper Studio glitter
Other - Copic Marker BG01, Hero Arts red nail heads & pool gems, various buttons; Icy Stickles;
Memento Tuxedo Black ink; brown Crayola pencil; Michaels Christmas ribbon; foam tape; white gel pen
Stamp - Hero Arts G5804 Shari's Tree No.2 (retired)
Dies - Hero Arts DI337 Nesting Oval Infinity Dies

When I decided on buttons, I went looking for the darling woodblock stamp you see in the photo. The amazing Shari Carroll designed it (and two other trees) for Hero Arts back in 2013 when she still worked there. I bought all three but hadn't used this one yet. Simon Says Stamp still carries Tree No.1, if you want to take a look, but not the other two. I'd seen #2 done with buttons years ago, including this beauty by the talented Rosemary, but hadn't tried it myself. Just had to give it a go for Kelly's challenge!

After stamping the tree and coloring the trunk, I spent a lot of time playing with buttons. I didn't have teeny ones so added gems, including some extras, and then added a few nail heads to tie in with the glittery frame. Since the patterned paper says Season's Greetings, I didn't add a sentiment. I stamped and fussy cut an extra star to pop up with foam tape - added some icy Stickles to it for some shine.

Hope you have a chance to check out all the fabulous cards by the Merry Monday Design Team and I thank them again for the past four months and the extension! Having been a part of the team, I've seen firsthand how hard they work to offer these fun challenges and bring inspiration each week. Thank you, thank you! Wouldn't get my Christmas cards done without Merry Monday - truly!!

Remember - Merry Monday will be off next week for Christmas but look for us on January 1st - you can get a start on next year's stash right on New Year's Day!! Thanks for stopping and happy holidays to you and yours!