Shiny New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were warm and wonderful! :-) Though I love the splendor of the holidays, I have to admit that there's also something marvelous about packing up all the decorations and getting back to "normal." For me, part of that "getting back to normal" is finding time to craft. It brings me back to center and, along with a lot of prayer, helps to keep me sane. Well, mostly sane! LOL

Things are also getting back to normal over at Tuesday Throwdown. After a two-week break for the holidays, we have a new challenge to share with you today. Since we're celebrating a shiny, new year, we decided to incorporate that as this week's theme -- "Shiny New Year." The challenge is to use something shiny on your project.  Our generous sponsor this week is Robyn's Fetish. They provided the adorable image used on my card today -- "Snowcone." To create my card, I started with this week's layout from Outlines. (Though they only permit challenge entries made with their stamps, I couldn't resist borrowing their cute sketch!) I colored the image with Copic markers. For my main "shiny" element, I created a background paper piece using tin foil. This is a very simple technique. You simply cover a piece of cardstock with aluminum foil, place the piece inside an embossing folder, and run it through your machine. Fun, but easy! For additional "shine" on my card, I added some clear gloss to the snowman's buttons and his chocolate top-knot. I also added some Stickles glitter glue to the snow and the snowman button. So while it doesn't seem to show well in the photo, this is one super shiny card!

I hope you'll stop over at Tuesday Throwdown and help us kick of this shiny, new year in style. I can't wait to see what you make! :-)