Blog Hop Winner and A Berry Pink Christmas card!

Happy Wednesday, my dear friends! I hope your week has been fabulous. :o)

I have a very special card to share with you today, but before that I want to thank you all for the incredible comments on my carousel. It made me happier than a Christmas twinkle light! I'm so thankful you all played along with us over the weekend. :o) Welcome to my new fantastic friends... I can't believe I surpassed 100! Woohoo! :o)

Now for the blog candy winner! I wish I could give you all something, but the sole lucky winner is comment #36: Debeez-Designs. Congratulations! :o) Email me when you have a moment so we can set up your prize. :o) (Contact information is under the Contact Me tab!) You have two weeks to claim your prize (October 26th)!

This card was not only a heap of fun to make, but it also serves a very special purpose. The marvelous ladies at Jingle Belles are making a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure for each pink Christmas card submitted in their challenge this week. How fabulous is that? I am thrilled to participate. With that incredible cause and a few challenges in mind, I created a mini crystalline winter wonderland. :o) It's my first shadowbox card, which also doubles as a wall hanging thanks to a chipboard backing and the metal thingamabopperjigs that are on frames. :o)

"Wishing you a berry pink Christmas"

(I didn't get a picture of the interior, which is a gorgeous light pink brocade. A tiny piece of velcro is all that's needed to enable this to be a card *and* a wall decor item. I'm sure there are oodles of other options aside from velcro to keep it securely closed when hung, too.)

The instant I saw the Jingle Belles challenge, I knew there would be a pink strawberry so I could be all punny. Instead of making it literally fruity, I printed an online coloring book picture of Strawberry Shortcake, cut out her super cute strawberry hat, and plopped it on this adorable Copic-colored stamp. I couldn't make it a regular strawberry hat though (if there is such a thing)... I had to make it sugared. So I gave her a sugared berry festive hat via gallons of glitter glue in varying colors. Her scarf and gloves are coated in a green iridescent glitter glue, while her boots are covered in Cotton Candy Stickles. The 'berry pink' part of the sentiment is a mix of pink and black... I promise it looks spiffy in person.

The idea for her winter wonderland began with using pom poms as snow. (Yes, pom poms again already!) The benefit of a shadowbox is that instead of simply using white pom pom ribbon as a little trim as I had first planned, I was able to pile up 'snowballs' on the ledge with larger poms! So fun. Our pink sweetheart is pop-dotted against a massive snowflake and sitting in the snow. I wanted to make some outdoor Christmas trees for the scene, so I used one of my favorite jolly papers since the colored dots could serve as ornaments... but then I decided each tree needed rhinestones, anyway. The trees are pop-dotted atop snowflake-embossed pearlescent cardstock. Then my iRock nearly exploded when I decided to make the entire shadowbox sparkly. It's a special card for the Cure and deserved to be as crystalline as possible. Sparkling snowflakes in abundance! To complete the card, I spritzed it a few times with Sparkle Shimmer Spritz.

One more important aspect to this project. See those two tiny hearts? One of the challenges I made this for requires at least one heart. Originally I assumed I would have a plethora of hearts. You guys know I'm sappy. But then as I settled into making my project, I reflected and thought about the meaning of Think Pink... and subsequently scaled down their visual impact, but gave them the most important purpose. The trees are topped with hearts because love is the true sparkle of Christmas. And the hearts are small because all it takes is one tiny touch of love to transform a life. One divine touch. One heartfelt gesture to a woman engaged in battle. One faithful prayer to break strongholds and open the door for a miracle. Love never fails.

Challenges entered:
 * A Gem of a Challenge~ "With love at Christmas" (Christmas card with at least one heart)
 * Fantabulous Cricut~ Wall decor
 * Jingle Belles~ Pink!
 * Love To Crop~ Embossing
 * LUFP~ Pink!
 * My Sheri Crafts~ Think Pink!

Thank you for visiting me today! I wish you all a berry pink week. :o)

Key Recipe Components:
 * Cricut cartridges: Create a Critter, Gypsy Wanderings
 * Cuttlebug embossing folder: Winter Wonderland pack
 * Spellbinders Nestabilities: Labels Four
 * Stamp: Warm in the Winter (The Paper Shelter)
 * Copics: E25, E31, E50 (hair); E00, E000, E0000 (skin); RV10, RV13, RV14, YG11, YG13, YG17 (coat, hat, gloves); Y11, Y13 (belt); B00, B02 (pants); C3 (kitty)
 * Paper: Core'dinations, Heidi Grace, K & Company
 * Ribbon: Hobby Lobby
 * Miscellaneous: Creatology pom poms, Dew Drop Brilliance ink, iRock, Shimmer Spritz, Stickles