I love the Internet...........

   .....and I learned just how much when our service went down for almost two days.  I now realize just how much I do rely on access to the World Wide Web and how much I also do online.   I missed my friends, missed being able to connect with any of my craft groups, missed out on all the new challenges, I could not do any online banking, I could not access any email, post on my blog, do any shopping... and so much more!!
   
   The good news is that it's back in service and that Verizon has now also upgraded my service and speed and it's also faster!! WOOHOO!!  I'm also very excited to be back online and back to connecting with my groups and back to creating cards for some of my favorite challenges.
   
    Today, I have several new cards to share and they were all made in the past couple of days.   The only card that is new today is this first card which is also one of the very first creations that I did using my wonderful new Silhouette Cameo.   The actual card base and shape was cut on my Cameo and it was simply a matter of adding some papers/foil on the back of the die cut trees to give them more life and sparkle.  I used Gold Foils for the stars and a contrasting green cardstock for the trees and scalloped border.   NOTE:  The dark green cardstock is full of shimmer, making it a real challenge to get a good picture!   It's really much prettier in person!!

   My next card is also another Christmas Card and this one was inspired again by one of Jennifer McGuire's cards from this Inspiration Showcase workshop!!  I have re-created this style a few times and with different stamps and love it every time.

   My next card was also inspired by another technique and card idea that I also learned from Jennifer.  I'm so excited that we are very close to starting the Holiday Card Boot Camp and hope to see lots of my friends there!!   We start on Monday and you can still register now - Simply go HERE!!

  And my next two cards were inspired by Julie Ebersole, who is a wonderful designer that I started following recently.  I saw this style card on her blog HERE and loved the wonderful CAS Style.  It's a cards style that could work for almost any occasion and is very easy to do!   Love it!!   Thanks Julie for the inspiration, looking forward to seeing what you have to share with us at Camp too!!

 
    I've also loved the Black and White combination, so that's the combo I picked for this card.  I'm also going to start on a new one later today, for this week's Color Combo Challenge at 'The Outlawz'.  If you want to play along, you can go HERE, for all the details!    These are the colors you'll need to use, which I thought would be really fun!!

    My next card is one I made for my son (Alex's) girlfriend, (Acacia), who has a birthday coming up.  Every time she has been in my craft room, she has always comments on this cute little digi image (Olivia) that I have sitting all glittered up on my desk.  Once I started to think about her card, I know I wanted to use 'Olivia' on her card and that's exactly what I did.  If you love this cutie, you can find her over at DigiStamp Boutique!

 
  Acacia also loves Purple, just like me, so I knew for certain I wanted to use a lot of Purple and Pink for her card.  I love when I have a chance to make a very 'Girlie Girl' card and having two sons, that's not something I had much chance to do, until they both found wonderful girls!!  I think she is a sweetie and I'm very happy that she and Alex make such a cute couple!!  

  I am also submitting her card to each of the fun new challenges:

• DigiStamp Boutique - November - Monthly Customer Appreciation
• Paper Crafting Journey - Challenge # 22 - Use a Digi
• For Fun Challenges - November 2nd - Very Special Birthday

  And I'm off to start another card!   Hope you all are having a good day and looking forward to lots of fun being back online!!