"The Sounding Joy" Holiday card

At last, I have recovered from my Holiday Card class held earlier last week-end (Friday and Saturday) and even managed to snap some photos of the projects we did at the class.  Neither photography nor speed are ranked high on my list of "strong points" so this really is amazing that I am sharing class projects already!        Please don't faint, my friends!                                                                                                                      

 This card looks dark in the photo (remember what I said about photography not being one of my strengths?) but it really isn't dark in person, just very "rich" looking and elegant with the pewter embossing powder....love it!                                                          

I think the Top Note die and the pewter embossing really made this card special, and I love the Cherry Cobbler quilted ribbon available in the Holiday Mini!  A few other details include Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder on the Basic Grey layer and an "underlay"of black cardstock to make the white Top Note die layer stand out a bit.  There isn't another die sized larger, I just used  a nifty trick  picked up from fellow demonstrator Sandy Hancock's blog and cut out two layers in black then snipped one down the middle vertically and one down the middle horizontally to simulate another layer.  This is a clever trick eing done with the Decorative Label punch but Sandy's blog is the only place I have seen it done with the Top Note die....I LOVE layering so this is a handy little trick....give it a whirl, if you haven't already been doing it.

I had Session 1 of my Holiday card class last Friday....wow, we had a FULL house!  It was great having so much stamping enthusiasm in the room but it was a bit cozy....not usually a problem but I may have to try something a bit different for next time to prevent bottlenecks at the stamping stations.  Of course, if I wasn't so addicted to the Big Shot that I feel the need to use it at least once on every card it wouldn't be as bad..  Session 2 was held on Saturday morning and MUCH more relaxed with plenty of  elbow room.

If you are in the area and missed out on the class, don't despair...I will be offering it again on October 18th at the Speedy Scrappers Scrapbook store in Highland, IL.  Just call Bridget at the store and put your name on the list  OR join my http://www.meetup.com/ group (look for Inkerzaway Stampin' and Scrappin' in O'Fallon, IL and surrounding areas" and you can register online.  If you can't make that class and would like to schedule a private class for you and some stamping buddies, just give me a call or drop me a note and we can set something up for you and your friends (minimum 6 stampers) to come on over and stamp! 

Hope you enjoyed the card, I will be back later this week with more pictures of recent card projects!