Cowboy Riley....

...says "Howdy"! I actually got some time to not only get my August Christmas card designs done today (you'll be seeing them a bit further down, just be patient!), but I also played with my new Cowboy Riley as well. He is a cutie, even if he did almost buy the big one, what with the arrow through his hat and all! The "Howdy" next to him was stamped with my Martha Stewart Ornamental Alphabet, which was just western enough to work with this Riley. So, here are the details for this one. I stamped Riley using Basic Black on Whisper White Cardstock and colored his body and antlers using Copic markers. His clothes and hat I colored in using SU pads and a blender pen. The base of the card is the new Baja Breeze, and the patterned paper is from my huge My Mind's Eye slab, which I have to say matches the Baja Breeze perfectly on this one! The mats around Riley are Not Quite Navy, Close to Cocoa, and River Rock, and the brads are a copper brad I found at Michaels. I used Chocolate Chip ink to stamp the word onto the card, and distressed just the edges of the patterned paper by sponging on some Close to Cocoa ink. Tomorrow I am going to get all Carribbean with my new Pirate Riley!

Here is a little closer look at the coloring on Riley. I am still looking for the right combo of Copics to shade him in. I actually do much better with his shading when I use ink pads and an aquapainter, but I'm trying to learn the ins and outs of my Copics so I can get the best out of them.

Now, onto the peek at my "Christmas in August" cards. If you follow my calendar on my Stampin' Up site, you know that I am running a Christmas card class every month from now until December so that everyone can get a jump on their cards and maybe find a design that they really like and feel like mass producing a ton of. It also helps keep me from trying to make 80 or so cards right before the holidays as well, so I figure this is a win-win situation. So, next month the cards will be these:

We will again be turning to some retired Christmas sets for our inspiration, but they are too cute to just let sit in the boxes, so out they come for a command performance. I know that you can't tell it from these pictures, but the card on the right has iridescent ice embossing on it as well as the regular stamping, so it is extra sparkly and cute. I'll be putting these up over on my other site sometime tomorrow, so y'all can check out the details of this class if you are interested.

I hope everyone enjoys these and has a great weekend! Until next time...Happy Stamping!

Kim