Swappin' Christmas in July

Free at last!!!  While I have barely tolerated greatly enjoyed my time working these past few months, all good things must come to an end, and today was my last day at work.  Here I am, doing the happy dance:

Now, mind you, I will miss the income, and I anticipate that in a couple of months, I'll be griping about the bills.  But for now, I feel free as a bird, and I plan to spend some seriously QUALITY time in my stamp cave for the foreseeable future!!!

This card was made for a demo swap over at Stampin' Addicts.  I hope the other swappers like it!  It was a difficult decision on whether to make it elaborate and WOW them, or keep it fairly simple, so they could show their customers a card they could do without too much stamping experience.  It does use a few basic techniques - heat embossing, dry embossing, and sponging.

By the way, here's a helpful hint: The Cherry Cobbler cardstock that was cut for the dry-embossed band was cut the exact length of the white.  After running it through the Big Shot in the embossing folder, it 'shrank' a little bit, due to the peaks and valleys of the embossing.  You might want to cut your CS a bit long to make up for the shrinkage.  *Snerk* I can hear Elaine saying, "It shrinks?!"  (George, "Like a frightened turtle.")  Elaine, "I don't know how you guys walk around with those things."

Stamp: Gifts of Christmas (115372)
Cardstock: Cherry Cobbler (119685) and Crumb Cake (120953) (why am I hungry all of a sudden?), Whisper White (100730), White Vellum Cardstock (101856)
DSP: Presto Patterns Specialty Designer Series Paper (117175)
Ink: Cherry Cobbler Classic (119669) and Soft Suede Classic (115657), VersaMark (102283), Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Write Marker (119681)
Accessories: Big Shot Die-Cut Machine (113439), Petals-A-Plenty Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (116824), Gold Brads (104337), Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (109129), Heat Tool (100005), Mini Glue Dots (103683), Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)