Seasons Givings WINNER and a BIG thanks!

First of all, I would like to say THANK YOU to all of you who left such sweet comments on my Seasons Givings blog hop post as well as on my Love Coupon book post! You are all so sweet! I had so much fun reading all of your creative goals and aspirations for this year. We are all so much alike! It is so fun to be part of a community with such similar goals all the while working for a greater good! I sincerely hope that each of you remember these goals as the year continues, because all of them will bring joy to others, which in turn, will bring YOU joy! And, without further adieu, the WINNER IS comment #114 ANGELA WALTERS!!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS! EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS AT kellyrory1@msn.com and I will send you your prize!

Normally, I create all of my holiday Thank you cards during the week between Christmas and New Years Day, but since I have been working on Christmas projects all year, I didn't feel the sense of "loss" as I pack away my Christmas stamps. I will be continuing on the Merry Monday Design Team all year, so I will be working on them each week. So, that means that I am behind on my holiday thanks. I decided to see if I could actually make a non-Christmas-y card and while I am VERY rusty, I like how this oxide ink card came out.

To begin, I blended Peeled Paint Distress Oxide Ink onto a piece of Bristol paper for a smooth blend. Normally I don't use Bristol paper with oxide inks because they are smoother than regular Distress inks, but it is DEFINITELY easier to get it smooth with this paper with less effort. I spritzed it with Shimmer Spray AND frost Shimmer Spray. I used both because I like the shine of the regular Shimmer Spray, but I like how the Frost Shimmer spray reacts with the oxide ink. I let that dry while I got to work on the flowers.

I didn't intend to stamp the flowers in Distress Ink when I was planning out my card, but in the end, I thought it would create a cohesive, smooth feeling card. The flowers and leaves are from Gran's Garden. The larger flowers are 3 step stamps, but since I chose Oxide ink, I only used the main, bold image. I really like how they turned out. The colors of the flowers and leaves are: Worn Lipstick, Peacock Feathers, Fossilized Amber, Antique Linen, and Peeled Paint. 

After all of the flowers were stamped, I die cut them using the coordinating Gran's Garden Dies. The sentiment is from Graceful Greetings and is one of my favorites! I haven't used it for a while so I was happy to pull it out again. It is heat embossed in Rose Gold embossing powder for an elegant shine.

After the sentiment was on the focal panel, I got to work arranging all of the flowers. I just love creating floral arrangements on cards...it feels very organic, even if they are just paper! LOL! Once I was happy with the arrangement, I added a trio of Sparkling Clear Sequins around the sentiment for some shine.

I added some Bright Gold Nuvo Drops to the centers of the flowers as well as a few here and there to bring in more of the gold accents. I also had a few flowers left over, so I added them to the inside, but I forgot to snap a picture! Once everything was in place, I spritzed the entire card front again with Frost shimmer spray so that it would react with the flowers as well.  Thanks for fluttering by and thanks again for stopping by during the hop!