Relief!

My sale is over, and it was successful. I think it might have been even more successful had the weather been a bit more cooperative. While it isn't storming in northern Minnesota, it has been snowing steadily all day long - enough to keep people home. Nevertheless, I'm happy with my sales and to be rid of some stuff. I'm even happier that the event is over. Now, I have to clean up the mess. Kathi's corner ended up in serious disarray, because I needed the boxes that house my current stamps for display. Thus, most of my stamp sets were dumped in a box and most everything else was moved around, which isn't very conducive to creativity.

Not to worry, however, as I had a couple of new stamps to play with. These cards are made with Elzybell stamps. If you happen across a European stamper's blog, you will note that many of their cards have characters on them, many of them little girls. Nosing around on the Internet, I found Elzybells, Sugar Nellies, and Tildas. Sugar Nellie is from Scotland (I think), Tilda is from Sweden, and Elzybell comes from the UK. My little Elzybell stamps were not imported, however. They are manufactured and distributed in North America exclusively for Elzybells Art Stamps Ltd. by A Muse Artstamps. The designs manufactured by A Muse are considerably smaller than those manufactured in Europe.

Anyway, when I saw them, it was love at first site. They are simple, sweet, and just plain cute. The name of the stamp on the pink card is "A Winter Song." "Girl with Sleigh" is the other one. I colored both of the designs with markers and a blending pen. The sentiment on the Christmas card is from Peace on Earth - a quote from The Grinch that I thought perfect for this card, "What if Christmas doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas means a little bit more." The card designs are really simple, fitting, I think, for small designs such as these. Hey, I just realized that "A Winter Song" is small enough to fit into one of the little two-inch clear top tins. Wouldn't she make for a cute shaker magnet? It would take some fancy cutting to make it dimensional the way the snowflake magnet is, but I think it could be done. If I do it, and it works, you know I'll share. For now, I'm going to go put some food in my stomach and start cleaning up. Later . . .