Merry Christmas!

I'm writing this while in Vancouver WA. No snow here! Just rain, wind, clouds, 40 degree weather. Kinda dreary looking for Christmas but a nice warm break from the AK winter. My hubby is down here for work so I thought I'd spend the holiday with him here in the hotel room rather than miles apart : ) Thankfully, Seattle and Portland airports didn't have the holiday or weather delays seen elsewhere.

This past weekend before I came down to WA I gave myself two options... spend the weekend baking holiday goodies to bring to WA, or make Christmas cards to mail out while here (I'm a last minute mailer). I don't bake much except at Christmas so once I started thinking of baking, I really couldn't resist! I made Pumpking bread (with dates & walnuts), Cherry Pecan bread, Snickerdoodles, Peanut Blossums, Pecan Sandies, and Chocolate peanut butter chip cookies. All of these goodies, packed in my luggage, made it to WA safely and with very few broken pieces : ) We're sharing most these sweets with Scott's co-workers who are also away from home during the holidays.

I was able to make a few Christmas cards between Thanksgiving Day and my big travel day (night). I don't have enough made so I will be supplementing them with store bought cards. : ( Some year I hope to start early enough to make one for everyone on my list!

I had seen a sample card at my local stamp store, the Stamp Cache, earlier this month that inspired me to buy this Poinsettia stamp. I mimicked the sample to stamp my flower by using Brilliance Pearlescent ink to give it a bold, shimmery impression and a touch of the Sakura glitter pen on the petals for an extra sparkle! Wanting to keep it flat and easy to mail, I used a gold gel pen on the centers rather than gold jewels.

I didn't have the shade of green I wanted in an ink pad but I did have a marker which I used on the stem and leaves. The green ended up not being as bold this way, nor consistent for each image stamped. On many of the lighter impressions I used the marker to retrace and recolor the leaves to balance them with the deep red flower.

The image and it's background were cut using Nestabilities dies. The trim for the Christmas paper was an after thought, it just needed some more color! I made it using my Fiskars wavy edge scissors, cutting the paper twice to make a thin strip, then glued it along the edge of the Christmas paper using a glue pen. Great way to save on colored cardstock rather than matting the dp and cutting one edge with the wavy scissors tho a challenge to line up the waves to some degree (or not at all as I see on one edge of this particular card).

Stamp: Poinsettia Silhouette-Memory Box; Ink: Brillance Pearlescent Poppy (red), Green marker, Gold Gel pen, Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust-Clear (glitter pen); Paper-DCWV Cardstock and Text Prints Mat Stock; Other: Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Oval dies, Cuttlebug, Fiskars wavy scissors, Glue pen

This simple card uses Christmas paper from the same set by DCWV. The holly leaves are a Martha Stewart punch and the berries (that you can barely see in this pic) are made with dots of glitter glue. This poinsettia stamp is colored with gel pens and cut out using a Nestabilities die.

Stamp: Stampin'Up!; Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, gel pens; Paper: DCWV Text Prints Matstock and cardstock; Other tools: Holly leaves-Martha Stewart Punch, Stickles glitter glue-Christmas Red, Spellbinders Nestabilities Classic Oval die, Cuttlebug

I better get some of these cards out in the mail, it's almost the New Year! My oldest sister and her husband are coming down from the Seattle area to visit for a few days while I'm here. I'm looking forward to seeing them soon!