Silver and Gold...

Yep.  Kinda hung up on the song and the colors lately.  I am loving the deep discounts and coupon action I am finding recently (well, in the month of December) both online and in  brick and mortar stores.  It allows me to make some purchases that would not otherwise find their way into my cart due to them being to seasonal.  I like to stretch my crafting products but sometimes it is nice to get items that are solely and completely for a particular holiday or season.  And sometimes some products, like dies, are too difficult to find very deeply discounted during the season.  But this year I found several and today I used a Tim Holtz die that would have never ever have found it's way into my basket had it not been very deeply cut in price.  I mean, it is gorgeous and all but reindeer are really pretty limited to Christmas and the Christmas season!  I love the graceful lines of this die however and when JoAnn's had it sooooo cheap that I would be a FOOL to pass by the savings.....(hehehehe) I decided to add it to my cart .  Sticking with my current silver/gold obsession, I made two cards for today.  Both are a little over the top....and actually I am not sure that I really care for either too much!  I think I need to straighten and clean my craft room in order to unearth some other papers and colors!  But, crafting is an experiment right? And with that in mind I decided to experiment with "excess".  Enjoy!

At JoAnn's, and I am sure other stores....they have wedding sections and in those sections they have pearls.....so much cheaper than the pearls that are in the craft/scrapbook section of the store.  This particular bit of pearls is from an entire sheet of pearls that can be wrapped around a candle or other item.  I like it because it is on a slightly glittered background and all the pearls are obviously in perfect little rows that can be cut and adhered as I want.  Also, they can be individually cut and used also.  I find this to be MUCH cheaper than buy the pearls from the various craft companies.  Here are the pearls....basically 792 pearls for $10 before coupon....

http://www.joann.com/david-tutera-4-mm-self-adhesive-pearls-792pk/zprd_10664860a/

And they also have "gems" in the wedding dept....

http://www.joann.com/david-tutera-self-stick-oval-rhinestones-98-pk/zprd_11312717a/

as well as other sizes and shapes.  I find that these all color up beautifully with copics if you want to customize your pearls and gems.  And if you are anything like me and enjoy  embellishing with  bling this is really a huge cost savings! 

Here is my second card.  I was able to find some foil paper on deep discount too and here I cut and glittered both silver and gold foil after first die cutting it.  I wanted to try a shaped card.....especially working with  a partial die cut.  Not too sure if I like it or not.....although, I will say it does look TONS better in real life than it does in this photo.  We are under a blizzard watch so lighting is a bit off I think.

Well, the blizzard is supposed to hit starting tonight and through tomorrow....anywhere from 6-16 inches.....seems like quite a safe spread for the weather man to make!  Anyways, I need to make several errand runs.  My husband is supposed to come home tomorrow night from China and we both have a sinking feeling that his return might be delayed.  Friday we were planning to pick our daughter up from college together and Saturday we have my husband's family's Christmas about three hours away so I need him to be home!  Thank you for stopping by and take care!

Be well,
Sheila