Holly & Mistletoe

Here are the Kitchen Sink Stamps cards I promised to post today. Yesterday was a BIG release day in the stamping world and Kitchen Sink Stamps participated in the excitement by releasing 4 new Holiday sets. I received the 3 Step Mistletoe & Holly set in my crew kit and LOVE it!! I think the images are just sooooo pretty and there are 2 different sized sets of holly leaves and berry, plus the mistletoe, a pretty ribbon and 3 nice sentiments.

This card was made using the large holly leaves. For inks I used Certainly Celery and Garden Green (for the middle color I used Garden Green but stamped-off before stamping it). For the berries I used Pumpkin Pie (stamped-off first), Ruby Red and Cranberry Crisp. I then added a layer of Crystal Effects to make the berries nice and shiny!

The layout is Julee Tillman'sMojo Monday Week #9 sketch - nice huh?! I love the large center image. On the green layer I stamped in Versamark using a great little background image from KSS's Backgrounds & Borders set. This set is HUGE - lots of images to use as background - and in differing sizes! I edged the DP and the sentiment circle with some beeeeeaaauuutiful German Glass Glitter I purchased last week from the Say It With Letters Etsy Shop. It is so different from other glitter I've used - it really reminds me of those old fashioned glass ornaments - just all crushed up! A beautiful sparkly silver!! I'm not sure if Deb has more of this, but contact her if you want to try it out - you will NOT be sorry!!

Ok, this is getting longer than I hoped . . . I'll just add the next photo and say that I used the holly and ribbon stamps for this card. I used Sahara Sand, Certainly Celery and Garden Green for the mistletoe and Cameo Coral and Cranberry Crisp (stamped-off for middle color) for the ribbon.

A special thanks to Visiting Kitchen Crew member Beth Silaika for making beautiful Kitchen Sink Stamps watermarks for the whole Crew!! Thanks Beth - they are great!

The DP is yummmmmmy Crate Paper Holly that I got from the Paper Pretties Corner Store as well as the ivory ruffle-edged ribbon. AND I finally received my Nestabilities so the center images were done with them!!! Let me just say - LOVE THEM!! They are SOOOOO WORTH the investment!! Remember you can always sign up for the Paper Pretties Nestabilities Now Club which is a great affordable way to get these - you get 1 set each month which gives you time to play and practice before another set comes!

My day yesterday was filled with lots of drama - our well pump died in the middle of the day - YIKES!! What do you do with 4 small children and no water??? Call your husband fast! :) You know God is sooooo good . . .my hubby went to the grocery store on his way home from work and "bumped" into some friends of his parents who live very close to us. He was telling them of our water troubles and wouldn't you know, they knew just the person we needed (I DO NOT believe in coincidences!)!! There is a man who goes to their church who's business is dealing with wells and water pumps. They called us with his number, I made the call and he was here without 30 minutes! He diagnosed the problem and went home to get what he needed. He came back at 5:30 pm - and worked in the dark (he had some big lights) to replace our pump. Within about an hour we had water (and a bit less $$$ LOL!)! If you are local and have water problems, call McMahon's Water Services - he's smart, fast, reasonable and very nice (and has 8 children!).

Sorry for the very long post . . .I'll be quiet now! :) Have a great weekend!!!