Cheery Snowflakes and Polka Dots

I'm in love with the fun color combo used in the current colourQ challenge.  I used to lean more to the traditional side when it came to colors for snowflakes and Christmas cards, but I've learned that it is way more fun (and often more visually appealing) to mix things up a bit.  I really like the pink and blue mixed with the traditional red and green.  I tried to stay pretty true to the suggested colors, but I did swap Wild Wasabi for Glorious Green and Tempting Turquoise for Cool Caribbean so that I was using current Stampin' Up! colors.  I sure miss having Cool Caribbean around, but I guess we can't have them all, can we.  I think the combo still works well and is pretty close! 

I stamped the snowflakes from the Snowflake Soiree set in Real Red, Regal Rose, Wild Wasabi, and Tempting Turquoise and then cut the panel into three pieces before mounting it onto my Regal Rose card stock.  I then mounted that onto some Tempting Turquoise Patterns DSP (love those polka dots with the snowflakes) and then onto white and finally onto the Wild Wasabi card base.  Originally I was planning to just use a turquoise card base, but after trying it both ways the wasabi won--it just looked better and cheered up the card with extra color!  I added some stitched grosgrain in Real Red around most of the layers and then tucked my greeting under the stamped panel.  I used the Sweet Essentials set (specifically the "make a wish" stamp) and just inked up the "wish" part of it.  Then I punched it the tall way with the Decorative Label Punch to give it some shape.

I have to say that I think Snowflake Soiree is one of my favorite, if not the favorite, of all my snowflake sets.  I didn't think I'd say that when I first got it, but the shapes and patterns are just too much fun!  That is saying a lot as I've been a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator for over 14 years now, and that means I have a LOT of snowflake sets--come on, you know that we always "need" the latest and greatest snowflake set :)  I'm typing up this blog post as I look out my window and see the sunny blue skies and not a bit of snow on the ground, which is just fine with me!  We got a little snow in the mountains last night, but just a bunch of rain here in the valley.  Now this is my kind of winter!  I'd prefer to have my snowflakes be the stamped kind and my snowmen to be the sidewalk chalk variety.