Enjoy!

I had to take a break from my online class assignments this weekend to make cards for upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, and to send to some friends needing some encouragement.

Now there's a bit of fodder for future blog posts as well. Two of the cards used a silver metallic paper I bought last winter from Michael's for my Christmas Journal pages and I thought I'd get them posted (just under the wire) for the current Virginia's View Challenge: All Things Metallic.

I started out die cutting Papertrey Ink's Phrase Play #4 with the silver paper. After backing the "Enjoy" with black paper, and adding a strip of black and white polka-dot paper, I angled it on an Hawaiian Shores card, stamped the remainder of the sentiment and added a few sequins.

I then had the letter from the negative in the Phrase Play die, so made a second card with the same card base.

This time I used a black strip of paper to add some interest to the silver letters, a stamped ampersand from "Grand Ampersand", and "Celebrate" from "Wet Paint II" (all PTI).

I've always loved that ampersand stamp, but this is the first time I've been able to put it to good use.

It's amazing how fast things can change. A week ago today we broke record high temperatures (near 80°). Today we have near record low temperatures with a wind chill of 7°. Fortunately, we did not get the record snows just west of us. My friend's son has over 5 feet of snow in his driveway, and it's still snowing. The Thruway is closed from here to the Pennsylvania border! I hope it all gets cleared up before folks need to travel for next week's Thanksgiving holiday.