December 2018 - Joyful Stars Blog Hop!

Welcome back to the Joyful Stars Blog Hop!  If you came here from the talented Betty's blog, thank you for continuing on here!

This month I'm focusing on a card using some of the cute Christmas items in our Holiday Expressions Idea Book.  As we tend to make lots of Christmas cards this time of year yet time is stretched due to all the additional events going on, I thought I would make this card, but also point out where corners can be cut to facilitate mass production.

For the top portion of the card, I cut a plaid piece from the 'Tis the Season paper packet and adhered to a White Daisy card base.  Next I cut 9 postage stamp squares from White Daisy cardstock using the Cricut® Artbooking Digital Collection.  I then stamped the 2 tree images from the Christmas Countdown stamp set in New England Ivy ink.  I adhered the squares using Thin 3-D Foam Tape, but to save time, they can simply be adhered straight onto the plaid paper.  Finally, I added some simple Clear Sparkles to the tops of each of the stamped trees.

For the bottom portion of the card, I cut a piece of the holly paper from the 'Tis the Season paper packet and adhered underneath the plaid piece onto the White Daisy card base.  I attached a piece of Candy Apple Striped Ribbon, centering it on the holly paper, and trimmed to the edges of the card.  I used the "FA" and "LA" images from the Christmas Countdown stamp set to create the sentiment.  These were stamped in VersaMark™ ink on White Daisy cardstock and embossed using the Ranger™ Red Tinsel Embossing Powder; however, to save time, the images can simply be stamped in a coordinating color, e.g., Candy Apple Red ink.  The sentiment was layered onto a scrap piece of New England Ivy cardstock, and attached with Thin 3-D Foam Tape to the top of the ribbon, but again, it can simply be adhered directly to the card to save time.

I hope these tips were helpful and that everyone is having a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  Now please head over to Krista's blog to see her beautiful works of art!