Merry Monday #283 {Life is a beautiful ride...Happy Holidays}

WARNING: This doggy card WILL hurt your eyes! It will hurt your eyes looking for the doggy! LOL! I'm sorry, friends, I just couldn't resist! That is a joke from one of my favorite John Wayne movies "True Grit", except they're joking about chicken! 

Leanne has asked us to add a puppy into our Christmas cards this week. I realized that I didn't own a single Christmas set that had a dog. I was excited that it meant I could do a little shopping! I perused Simon Says Stamp and came up with so many amazing results! Once I had the stamp set and die cuts in my cart, the supplies needed to make my doggy card would be well over 50 dollars! A voice of reason came washing over me and I went back to the drawing board. I wracked my brain trying to think of ANY dog stamps or images that I had and then a light bulb went off...I remembered the sweet little doggy from the Pedal Pusher stamp set and knew that would just HAVE to do!

I was pleased because it looks like he was made to come peeking out of the holly berries cascading from the bicycle basket. I was also happy to use this set for this week's challenge because I have never actually used it for a Christmas card! I love it so much because it is such a versatile set with so many little additions and sentiments.

 My color palette ended up being a little more "Grinchy" than I was anticipating, but it looks fresh and springy, which is what I am hoping for in real life! LOL! To begin, I used the coordinating Pedal Pusher die cuts to die cut the dog, the bicycle, and the cascading holly. I used my MISTI to align the bicycle parts and the basket. I stamped the body of the bike in Pure Poppy Ink and the wheel portion in Smokey Shadow Ink. The holly is stamped using Simply Chartreuse Ink. 

I die cut the Mix and Mat: Postal Die using Stamper's Select White cardstock and then sponged on some "Peeled Paint" Distress Oxide ink. I spritzed it with some Shimmer Spray for some sparkle and to get a bit of oxidation in the ink. The "Happy Holidays" sentiment is heat embossed using silver powder onto a strip of Pure Poppy cardstock. I adhered it to the postal portion along with the bike using foam squares.

I intended to have this card be a horizontal card rather than vertical, but realized I wouldn't be able to add the "Life is a beautiful ride" sentiment. I added that to a 4 by 5 1/4 inch piece of white cardstock at the bottom. I decided to balance things off with a few sprigs of greenery from the Spruce and Sprigs stamp set and the coordinating dies.

I decided to add in some additional pops of red with some Nuvo drops. I think I may have gone a little overboard, but what is doen is done! LOL! They're just too fun to keep squeezing and adding and squeezing and adding! LOL! I hope you get a chance to join us this week! Thanks for fluttering by!