MFP Oct Blog Hop Day 1 - Holly Greetings

Hello! Welcome to the October 2011 MFP New Releases Blog Hop!

This month's new releases are: Holly Greetings, Christmas in the Country, Snowball?, Country Thanksgiving, Cardinals in Winter, and Ginger Cookies.For your convenience, all these sets are available TODAY at Mark's Finest Papers.

So, do you want to WIN today's Featured Stamp Set: Holly Greetings? (If you don't want to wait to win, you can always purchase the sets right away! We'll substitute a set from NEXT month's release if today's winner has already purchased this set!)

For your chance to win: Comment on the following Design Team members' blogs TODAY before midnight EDT. There will be ONE random winner chosen from the comments on today's Blog Hop blogs. That winner will win Holly Greetings. We will announce the winner's name on tomorrow's MFP blog post.

Lois

Vicky

Dawn

Anne

Peggysue

Connie

Linda

Karen

Patty

Liz

Geri

Lynn

Claudine

Debbie

Mark’s Finest Papers

So here is what I came up with using this fun set:

I stamped the holly and berry image in all 4 corners, colored with copics then tied some gold and red cording around the main panel and matted on green cs base.  The focal panel is one of the sentiments stamped in garden green cut and embossed using Nesties Label 1 then sponged on the inside of the nestie with real red.

This is for today's COLOR CHALLENGE # 344 - Tempting Eggplant Pie.
This is also for Monday's TECHNIQUE LOVERS CHALLENGE # 346 - Stack Up The Backgrounds. I stamped the background image from "BRICK WALL" acrylic stamp set after stamping off once then stamped the sentiment from "HOLLY CHRISTMAS" in elegant eggplant randomly followed by some tempting turquoise sponging around the edges.
My layout is from Monday's SKETCH AND STASH CHALLENGE # 72.
Now I have to admit I usually avoid detailed images such as this one as I have a hard time figuring out what is what but I did enjoy coloring this one even if I did it wrong. My image and sentiments are from a brand new set called "HOLLY CHRISTMAS" from MARKS FINEST PAPERS. After coloring I cut and embossed the focal panel using Nestie Label 9.
Hope you like it.

RECIPE:

Stamps: Holly Christmas, Brick Wall - MFP
Paper: white, elegant eggplant
Ink: momento tuxedo black, elegant eggplant, tempting turquoise
Accessories: ribobn, Nestie Label 9, dimensionals, sponges, stickles
Techniques: sponge distressing, 3D, layered background