April Christmas Cards

Hello!  I finally finished all my April Christmas Cards.  As most of you already know, I participate in the Christmas Card Challenge on Splitcoaststampers.  We make Christmas Cards all year long, so were not stressed out in November/December trying to make them all at once.  I've committed to making four Christmas Cards a month (one per week), and it's quite the challenge to keep that commitment, especially in the spring/summer months!  But I did!  I've already shown you two of them in previous posts this month, so here are my final two:

The first one uses a very old retired set from Stampin Up! called 'O Tannenbaum'.  I stamped the image is Always Artichoke ink and cut it out and adhered it to the card stock.  I put Stickles on the star and candles, and Crystal Effects on the ornaments.  The paper is from My Mind's Eye '12 Days of Christmas'.  The sketch was inspired by Silke Ledlow.

 

My second card uses a digital image by Heather Ellis.  The sketch is by Card Patterns (Sketch 112).  The paper is My Mind's Eye '12 Days of Christmas' and Cosmo Cricket 'Dr. Mr. Claus'.  I put Liquid Applique on the hat.

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge 'Winter Blues'

Hello and welcome to another Digital Tuesday Challenge.  This week's challenge is 'Winter Blues'.  I know, it's an odd challenge to have in the Spring, but we do still get some pretty chilly days in the Spring and I certainly do get the 'blues' because of it.  To participate in this week's challenge, simply make a card or project that's either 'wintery' or 'blue'.  Our sponsor this week is Pink Gem and they are giving away four digis to one lucky randomly chosen winner.

Well, nothing takes the Winter Blues away from me than thoughts of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, so I chose to use this adorable Pink Gem image "Baby Jesus".  I also used Blue-themed paper from the DCWV Holiday Collection 'The Winter Matstack'.  My sketch is from "I Love Sketches". The main image panel is up on dimensionals, and I put gold Stickles on the halo and all the stars. 

If you'd like to play along with us this week, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you directly to the Challenge Site with further instructions.

Have a great day!  Amy

Biltmore Village

Hello, today is Part Two of my husbands and my Romantic Getaway to North Carolina.  In my first post  I talked about our visit to the Biltmore Estate.  Today I'll show you pictures of Biltmore Village.  Believe it or not, George Vanderbuilt created a picturesque village just about a mile from his home for some of his estate workers to live in.  He wanted it to be a nice community for them, so he built a church, a train station, and a town square too.  Today, these homes are now gift shops and restaurants.  The houses were so adorable and the entire village reminded me of an Thomas Kinkade painting.  All the streets were lined with bricks and every corner had an old fashioned lantern.  At night the lanterns are lit up, and there are white lights strung on the eaves of every house and business.  In the picture below you can see one of the lanterns, the brick path, and a street trolley in the distance that gives tours.

Here is one of the homes.  I couldn't believe these beautiful homes were built for his estate workers.  I would love to live in one these today.

 A side view of the neighborhood.

 Another house.

 One of the houses was a Christmas Shoppe that sold Christmas decorations all year long.
 That's me in the distance standing on this beautiful tree lined street.

 This is a restaurant.  We found out later that President Obama and Michelle dined here when visiting Asheville.

Love the Azaleas in front of this house.

 That's my husband, standing in front of my favorite shoppe.  It contained mostly decorative pieces for the home and garden.

 And here I am standing in front of the sign of that same shoppe.

 And finally, if it were in my budget, I would have loved to have brought one of these beauties home with me.  They are glass blown ornaments that cost about $800.00  I love the color they bring to a garden.  We stopped and asked the shoppe owner if she was worried that they would get broken by the strong wind, and she "no, they are heavy and the wind goes around the round sphere".  You have to have a very strong cable to hold them up though!

Have a great day! Amy