This is the first card I have made using Winter Woods.  Honestly, it was my favorite set after Wishing You Well.  I love it and I will be using it a lot this holiday season for everything from cards, to packaging to tags!  It is a lovely set with so many possibilities.

This card was designed around the sentiment with the pine boughs. I probably overdid the design adding the tree, but I loved it and I decided to keep it in.  But there is definitely a card coming up using just the stamps in the background and the sentiment with the pine boughs!

One great thing about this set is that Stamping Up! is giving us 3 framelits for the pine boughs and 2 for the pinecone! So, rather than having to make 6 or 8 Big Shot cuts, I was able to do it in 2! This gives the Winter Woods set a lot more value as you won’t be  afraid of doing layered cards in multiples!  Which around the holidays is a big deal!

The background trees and pinecones are stamped in Soft Suede on a piece of Wood Textures DSP.  The Wood Textures DSP adds a lot of dimension and interest to backgrounds.  For the pinecones, I thought the Early Espresso in the DSP was too harsh. So, I tried the Soft Suede and it is perfect.  I thought I would miss Chocolate Chip when it was discontinued, but I am finding the Soft Suede is really an even better color for a lighter brown. Give Soft Suede a try when you are wishing you had Chocolate Chip!

The sentiment was stamped in Shaded Spruce on Crumb Cake and then Die Cut from a Stitched Framelit in the Farmhouse Framelits die set.

Products Used For This Card

I have entered once already this week for the Global Design Project Challenge, #GDP157.  But I kept seeing all these untraditional and light colors being used for Halloween cards, so I thought, “why not try it in the Challenge colors? I love the color combination and it kind of works for “untraditional” Halloween colors.  And I love the Spooky Treats stamp set, so why not give it another try?

See all the other entries for this challenge by clicking on the image below.

I tried the card out using the Mint Macaron as the “sky”, but that did not work at all.  The Grapefruit Grove was the way to go for a Halloween Sky. Everything was easy after that and I managed to use only the Challenge colors in inks, ribbons and paper!  Usually there is a compromise here and there for black ink or Very Vanilla paper, but this card uses only the three colors of the challenge in paper, embellishments and ink!

Products Used To Make This Card

I haven’t participated in the Global Design Project Challenge for a few weeks. But the Color Challenges always catch my eye and spur a burst of creativity!  I always love the unique combinations they choose for the Color Challenges.  In fact, the last Global Design Project Challenge I entered was a Color Challenge and I won a “Special Mention” that I was very excited and happy to get!!!!  You can see that card HERE!

This week’s Color Challenge is a wonderfully challenging combination of Blackberry Bliss, Mint Macaroon and Grapefruit Grove.  You can see all the beautiful challenge cards for #GDP157 by clicking the image below:

As always with a Color Challenge, my first go to are Stampin’ Up!’s wonderful array of Designer Series Papers. I found exactly what I needed in the Nature’s Poem DSP and a paper from the Tranquil Textures DSP.  In fact, I CASEd myself from another Global Design Project entry for today’s card.  So, I guess you can say I am all about the Global Design Project today! See the other card version HERE!  If you have never done a Challenge Card, I encourage you to try it.  It is easy and fun to enter and you get all sorts of ideas from all the others who enter.

Products Used For This Card