Sneak Peek: Calm Christmas for Summer Card Camp

Hi Everyone.

Happy Tuesday.

Well, today was my first day back at work and I must admit I feel so much better for the time off; physically and mentally better!

One of the new sets that arrived via UPS was a set called Calm Christmas.  When I saw this in the holiday catalog I immediately fell in love with the image of the dove.   I saw one of the sketches at Summer Card camp and knew that this sketch was the ideal one to use with this set.   There are three great sketches for this week – and I chose sketch number 3 for this card.

I began by inking up the dove with versamark and then stamping onto Smoky Slate card stock.  I heat embossed the dove with white embossing powder.    I ran some Midnight Muse cardstock through my Big Shot with my almost snowflake embossing folder. :-)  I cut two pieces – one larger than the other and glued those down to my card base.   In order to make the sketch work, I needed to move the sentiment to the right hand side of the card, as my dove needed to go on the left.

I stamped the sentiment onto Whisper White card stock and adhered it to the card base.   Next, I fussy cut the dove and put stampin' dimensionals on the back – because I really wanted him to stand above the sentiment.   Before I stuck him down, though, I ran a piece of Gumball Green card stock through the leaf part of my bird punch.  I cut up some dimensionals and put those behind the leaf and glued the leaf behind the beak of the dove.    Once that was done, I adhered the whole bird piece to the card base.  All that was left, was to take my sharpie marker and color a very small pearl from the Essential Pearls.   I just have this thing…. I cannot put a stamped bird onto a page unless I gave him an "eye".   Don't ask me why…. I just think they look odd without one!   In this case, the black of the eye also plays off the black of the sentiment.

Here's my card:

Today was the second day of the Summer Card Camp – and lots more tips and techniques that I hope to try out this weekend.  I always learn something from these classes and the fact that this one is 3 weeks long is great.    I watch the videos whilst I have my breakfast in the morning!

I do love this set and think that it is likely to be the basis for one of my sets of cards this year.   It does come with a leaf as part of the stamp – but I really liked the pop of green and having a slightly larger leaf.   The bird punch is perfect as the leaves are the right scale.  

I have another couple of sneak peek cards coming up for you this week.    I didn't think I would be buying much from the holiday catalog, but found more to love than I thought I would! 🙂

On a personal note:

Several of you have asked what type of trees we planted.   They are Thuja Occidentalis.  It is in the same family as the one that Nancy guessed today, but this one is native to North America.  Now… the deer can be a bother for these trees when they are between 3-5 feet.   With the very large trees that we have planted they may be tempted to eat the new shoots.    In our last house, the deer completely left these trees alone.  But, this year, during winter, we will put up a temporary barrier just in case these guys decide they would rather like to eat them!   As we have already proven, these deer are very different to the deer in our last house!   Our hibiscus is making a come back and they have left it alone – as well as the Pelargonium – since that first night.   We aren't taking any chances though – and are spraying, just in case :-)   So thanks to Nancy and Elaine for the reminder about the trees and the deer!

Tomorrow I'll be back with another card and I will also have some photos of the copse of trees and some of our new planting.   The landscaper really planted some super cool plants and I can't wait to share some photos with you.  

Before I go tonight, I wanted to share a video of Dustin Hoffman being interviewed on his role in Tootsie.   I hadn't seen this heartfelt interview before, but I think it is something that every man – and actually every woman – should watch.   If you haven't checked it out – you can see it on the Today show page right here

As always, thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.    Your visits and your comments are always greatly appreciated.   Warm hugs and prayers to those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe – all ingredients Stampin' Up!

• Cardstock:  Whisper White.  Midnight Muse.  Gumball Green
• Stamps:  Calm Christmas
• Tools:  Bird Punch.   Big Shot.  Embossing Folder.   White embossing powder.  Heat Gun.   Dimensionals.