The Great Outdoors

This fortnight's prompt is the rather brilliant idea of our lovely guest star and fellow belle Shanna Cameron Picard, whose outdoorsy family loves winter sports and other fresh air pursuits. Shanna has wonderful childhood memories of being outside, as well, so when she suggested making holiday cards with an outdoor setting, and we realized we've NEVER used this theme before, we said, "Yes, please!" as quickly as possible, and signed her up to come join us. We've got some pretty good examples to share with you, but first let's meet Shanna:

"Besides the obvious papercrafting stuff, i love to read, garden, hike in summer/fall, ski & snowboard in winter and do yoga regularly. I consider almost anything that involves time spent with my boys outdoors to be time well spent. I am one of those people who wants to try everthing but am always working to find balance in life. My day job involves working with children who are blind or living with vision loss and requires frequent travel throughout Northwestern ON. The travel can make life very busy, but i LOVE what i do. I consider it my life work rather than simply a job."

Did we mention that she also makes incredibly lovely cards? And we can prove it, too... see?

Shanna's Card

Shanna says, "I had been wanting to try my hand at creating a collage-style card and this seemed like the perfect opportunity since I was hoping to incorporate a number of things on just one card. I have many fond memories of time spent in the great outdoors growing up and tried to portray some of them here. When I was a little girl, we sometimes went hunting for a tree the old-fashioned way, by tromping through the bush until we found one that was just right, no need for tree lots in the country - hence the trees and snowflakes. We all learned to skate shortly after learning to walk, whether it was at the local rink or on the tiny pond in the pasture - so I had to add the silhouette of the skaters. The overall vintage feel of the card reminds me of Christmases when I was a small girl when we would drive the country roads to Nana & Papa's house to spend most of Christmas day with family in their big old house - warm & cozy memories!"

Stephanie's Card

Stephanie says, "I love this night-time outdoor snowy scene from Hero Arts Merriest Christmas Wishes.  I added a few spritzes of Summer Sky Fireworks spray for snowy shimmer & colored my cardinal with Spectrum Noir colored pencils.  I finished with a sentiment bubble from Holiday Conversation."


Lauren's Card

Lauren says, "When I first started thinking about this theme, I went looking for an image in my vintage stash that showed a snow-covered cabin in the woods or maybe Santa's workshop at the North Pole, but then I came across this gorgeous October Afternoon Holiday Style paper and it occurred to me that there's just as much Christmas Spirit... (and just as much OUTDOORS, for that matter)... in the city as the country, so I built my card around this bustling urban scene using the current Retro Sketch!" 

So whether your ideal outdoor holiday scene is a snowy forest, sparkling city lights, or Santa relaxing on a sandy beach under a palm tree, add that to your next card and link it up right here before 6pm (EST) on Wednesday, November 19th! Keyword for galleries and flickr is JB:14:23.

An InLinkz Link-up