A Blog Hop, a Challenge, a Card, and a Giveaway!

Hello, friends, and welcome to Day 2 of "The Daily Marker 30 Day Coloring Challenge"! Today is the FIRST day of a THREE DAY blog hop to jumpstart your creativity.

If you're new to the colouring challenge or have any questions about the colouring challenge, you can refer to this post at Kathy's blog.

If you are coming from Olga's blog, you are in the right place! To start at the beginning of the hop, go to The Daily Marker's blog here.

I have been participating in Kathy's colouring challenges since the very first one. It appealed to me because it was a no-stress challenge -- colour as little or as much as you have time for. Give yourself that permission to make doing something you enjoy doing a priority! And Kathy herself is so likeable, I just can't help doing anything she says is a good idea.

It was thanks to this challenge that I met so many remarkable, inspiring, and encouraging people on Instagram. I sure hope you will join us in the challenge, and be sure to reach out and show each other a bit of love and encouragement in the comments. You will be so glad you did!

Did you know that Kathy is also a stamp designer? Last year she designed a stamp set for Hero Arts for the My Monthly Hero kit. This was a limited edition kit, and I was lucky enough to snag one before the site temporarily crashed from all the people trying to purchase it!

I wanted to make a Christmas card (really, is there time to make anything else this time of year??), and I wanted to use Kathy's stamp set for this blog hop. This is a great set, with a gnome and a gnome house, and lots of plants for a garden -- clearly meant for a season other than winter. It also came with coordinating dies for many of the images, including the ornament stamps. So, I thought I'd use the gnome with his gnome home, but that I'd also give him a winter-loving friend. After all, a gnome on his own in the winter could use someone to do some of the heavy lifting!

I found his friend in my new My Favorite Things "Beast Friends" stamp set, using the Yeti with the string of Christmas lights, and the trees included in the set. I liked the idea of the two of them hanging out and getting ready to decorate a Christmas tree in the front garden. 

I used silver embossing powder for the outline of the ornament which was the background, and the coordinating die to create the opening in the card front, which I popped up on a regular piece of craft foam, adhering it with Glossy Accents because I lost my bottle of Ranger Multi Medium Matte somewhere on the walk between the craft room and the table I was working on. It happens. :) 

All the colouring was done using Copic markers, with clear Wink of Stella highlighting a few areas in the snow and the face of the Yeti (he's frosty), and Glossy Accents on the lights and the windows of the gnome home. I also used a white Gelly Roll pen to dot the scene with some snow, and a silver metallic Gelly Roll pen for the silver stitching on the outside of the die cut opening.

The card base is made from 120 lb Neenah white cardstock, the scene is stamped and coloured on 80 lb Neenah white cardstock (my favourite to use for Copics), and the front is made from 130 lb Neenah Classic Crest, which I received as happy mail from my friend, Meghan, who I met from one of the first colouring challenges! I've been hanging on to this precious cardstock, and this seemed like an appropriate time to bust it out. 

So that's my card!

GIVEAWAY TIME! 12 GOODIE BAGS! That's TWELVE CHANCES TO WIN during the three-day hop. the more you comment on beach hopper's blog or Instagram, the more chances you have of winning. Winners will be chosen randomly FROM THE BLOGS and INSTAGRAM hop comments. The full list of winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 16th at 9:00 am at www.thedailymarker.com (contest closes November 13th at 11:00 EST). 

Now it’s time to hop to my friend Sarah's blog!

Thank you so much for your visit today, and I can't wait to see your posts during the colouring challenge. Be sure to use the hashtag #thedailymarker30day so we can find your work, or you can join the Facebook group here.

The full list of blog hop participants, in case you get lost:

Kathy Racoosin Barb Smith-Walker Sarah Jay Kim Kimmel Becker Jessica Frost-Ballas Lisa Tilson Kymona Tracey Dana Kersey Joy Barb Summers Engler Sonja Kerkhoffs Olga Pershina Sandy Boone Sarah Nottingham Marika Gewalli Monica Pineda Birka Reinitz Steph L Mayra Duran-Hernandez Jenny Lee Yamasaki Liz Sarkisyan Julia Altermann