Swirls and Pearls

Today my husband decided to go to Home Depot and run some errands and both girls wanted to go with him (crazy right?!). So, I have the house all to myself and can craft and blog to my heart's content!  I checked out this week's challenge at Simply Stampin' Challenge and they are challenging everyone to create using swirls and pearls. How fun is this!!  I immediately thought of one of my favorite Christmas stamp sets and dug around in my supplies til I found some retired DSP that I thought would look good with the image I wanted.  Generally my cards are very clean and simple. There are a few reasons for this. I like to mail most of my cards and heavy, lumpy cards don't mail so well. I also find that the more I try to add to my initial idea, the less I like it. But the main reason is because I share my crafting table with the rest of the family at mealtime.  But, today, my house is empty and I can get a little more involved!

I used the stamp set Snow Swirled and stamped the tree with VersaMark then covered with gold embossing powder. I haven't heat embossed in a little while and have to admit that I still get a little giddy as the powder goes from tiny crystals to liquid gold! The little snowflakes on the tree were the perfect location for my pearls.  I sponged all of the edges with soft suede ink. I love the aged look it adds. 

Wondering about my ribbon? It is the chocolate chip scallop dots ribbon (dot side down). I also spritzed the card with Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz. It's difficult to see in the picture, but this gives the card such a soft,pearly, shimmer. I also put a few snowflakes on the inside to dress it up a little.

I am also entering this for Simply Stampin's DT call.  There are some incredible crafters submitting creations so wish me luck!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-ruby red (ret.), old olive, very vanilla, Holiday Treasures DSP (ret.), Ink-VersaMark, soft suede, ruby red (ret.), Stamp Set-Snow Swirled, Accessories-gold embossing powder, heat gun, chocolate chip scallop dots ribbon, basic pearls, decorative label punch, dimentionals, sponge daubers, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch Spritz.