It's Not Too Late!

Hello stampers and welcome to a sunny Thursday in the Northwest!  I love it when the sun comes up into a clear sky... how about you?  There's just nothing like a little sunshine to recharge my batteries.  I guess you could say that those of us who come from sunnier climates are "solar-powered," so no wonder we get a little run-down and grumpy when we don't see the sun regularly!

Today is the 8th of December and while Christmas is sneaking up on us, there's still time to make a few hand-stamped cards if you haven't done so already.  It isn't too late if  you keep the cards simple.  And you don't have to make hundreds.  Just make a few for the very special people in your life--- the people who will appreciate and value the time and effort that went into making a hand-crafted card.

Today's card is one that we made at a stamping party or two in October or November.   The stamping is pretty quick and simple and a couple of punches speed things along.  If you don't own this set, you might want to get it quickly as the Holiday Mini-catalog expires on January 3rd.    Here's the card...

The stamp set I used on this card is called Pines and Poinsettias and you can find it on page 21 of the Holiday Mini.  I used markers to color directly on the stamp... Early Epresso, Old Olive, and Cherry Cobbler.  I punched it out with the smaller Scallop Circle Punch and then layered it onto the larger scalloped circle punched with the 2 3/8" Scallop Circle Punch in Cherry Cobbler.  Both of these punches are on page 210 of the big catalog.  I embossed the top section of a Very Vanilla panel with the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder (p. 219), then stamped the sentiment on the un-embossed area at the bottom of the panel in Cherry Cobbler. This elegant greeeting is from the Hand-Penned Holidays set on page 15 of the Holiday Mini-catalog. I've used this set over and over again this fall and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be in the new 2012 Idea Book and Catalog when it comes out in July.  I used some Scallop Dots Ribbon in Cherry Cobbler (p. 195), turned over so the dots don't show.  Then simply adhere the Very Vanilla panel to a Cherry Cobbler panel, to a folded Very Vanilla card and you are finished!  This is a quick but elegant card that someone would love to find in their mailbox!

I must run now, stampers!  I've got a lot to do today and I'm sure you do too. Oh, and I wanted to mention that my posting is going to become a little more sporadic as we get closer to Christmas. I'm going to running be in and out all weekend and then next week things get even crazier, so I won't be posting as often. Hopefully you'll be just as busy and won't even notice that I'm not here every day! 
Get outside and enjoy the sunshine!
Susan