Merry Monday #287 - Inspiration Photo

Back for another Merry Monday post - I'm glad you stopped by! This week Colleen offers a fabulous inspiration photo for Challenge #287.

The fun mix of colors and all the snowflakes struck me right away. You might see buildings but I saw an array of gift tags. With that idea in mind I headed to my crafty stash to look for tag dies. Instead I found a grid die and my mind went bouncing off in another direction - does this happen to you?! Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - Recollections printed card; Paper Studio holiday red;

Hero Arts Lawn; Poptone Bubblegum; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White;

Tim Holtz Metallic Kraft

Dies - My Favorite Things Die-Namics Sq Grid Cover-up (retired)

Lawn Fawn Mini Snowflakes

Stamps - Avocado Arts - poinsettia (retired); Inkadinkado Home for Christmas - present

Hero Arts Origami Happy Holidays - wreath; Paper Smooches Warm Hearts Icons - holly

Hero Arts Let the Angels Sing - dove (retired); Lawn Fawn Snow Day - heart

Lawn Fawn Let it Snow - bell, Ready Set Snow - snowman, & Peace Joy Love (retired) - tree

Hero Arts Color Layering Wreath - sentiment

Other - Hero Arts Red Royal & Black inks; Copic Markers; 

Xmas Red Stickles; Lucky Clover Distress Ink; May Arts string twine;

Silver & gold gel pens

I started with a prefab A2 card from Michaels in the light pool color from the inspiration photo. Hard to see in my photo but it's printed in little snowflakes. I diecut the grid in four colors, using the red outline (just love red with pool) and inlaying squares of the three other colors. I left three windows open to the pool card. Next I went through my Christmas stamps looking for images to fit my windows. I stamped the sentiment in one open pool window and added a gold and a silver diecut snowflake in the others. I stamped the chosen images and colored with Copics. Three of the images had no outlines so I carefully traced them with a black Copic marker - a bit wonky in spots, oh well....

This was a fun card to plan and assemble! Also a nice flat card for mailing. If I'd been smarter, I would've stamped a few more squares while I had the stamps set up in the MISTI. Surfing my stash for images to fit took the most time in the process - the rest went pretty quickly. Yay - another Christmas card for my growing set. Seventeen weeks into the year; how many cards do you have ready? The Merry Monday Christmas Challenge will help you reach your goal so you're not scrambling come December!!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the challenge details and all the awesome Design Team cards HERE. Hope you have a crafty week and I can't wait to see what you'll create!!