All creatures great and small

I finally finished my Christmas cards yesterday. Woo hoo! I made a total of sixty-five cards this year, which should be just about right. Now I get a break for a week or two, and then it's time to start addressing envelopes. (I still do all of my addressing and signing cards by hand because I actually like the feel of writing and I think it's more personal.)

I've always loved holiday cards that include animals, so two of the card designs I made yesterday focused on animals.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®):
Stamps: Zoo Review, Curly Cute
Card stock: Pool Party, Whisper White, Basic Black
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray
Accessories: Aquapainter, Snow Burst embossing folder, 1/8" Basic Black taffeta ribbon, 1-3/4" circle punch, Dazzling Details, Basic Rhinestones, Dimensionals

This is my favorite Christmas card design from this year (and I think it was subconsciously inspired by an adorable bookmark I received from the World Wildlife Fund). For the main part of the card, I embossed a 4" x 5-1/4" piece of Pool Party card stock with the Snow Burst embossing folder and layered it on a Basic Black card base. I cut pieces of white card stock freehand to make the snowdrifts, stamped the greeting and added Dazzling Details for a little sparkle.

For the penguin, I stamped the image on white card stock and used an Aquapainter brush and ink pads to fill in his beak, feet and wings. I used the 1-3/4" circle punch to punch out the penguin, and then I trimmed around the image, leaving the circular edge on the bottom intact. I used Dimensionals to adhere the penguin to a circle of Pool Party card stock and also to adhere the entire piece onto the card. When placing the penguin image on the card, I tried to match up the snow line on the stamped image with the edge of the snowdrifts, so the penguin is in a slightly different place on each card I made of this design.

For the last couple of details, I tied a piece of black ribbon around the top of the card (to balance out the black greeting on the bottom) and added a few randomly placed rhinestones to the embossed snowflakes on the background. This card just makes me smile!

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Zoo Review, Peaceful Season
Card stock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, More Mustard, Soft Suede, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Gray, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Circle punches: 3/4", 1-1/4", 1-3/8", 1-3/4"; Framed Tulips embossing folder; Aquapainter

This is a fairly simple card; it doesn't have any layers or (as I realized when I was done making it) any embellishments. But I think the simplicity works well with the message and feel of this card.

To start I stamped the greeting and dove on opposite corners of a Crumb Cake card base. Then I embossed the card with the Framed Tulips embossing folder. When I stamped the images, I tried to leave a little space on the sides to account for the embossing. Parts of the images still ended up getting embossed, but it doesn't really affect the card.

I stamped the animal images on white card stock, colored them with an Aquapainter brush and ink pads and punched them out with different sizes of circle punches. (I used all five of the animal stamps in the Zoo Review set, but they wouldn't all fit on the card. So the cards I made with this design have different combinations of animals.) I stamped the Earth image in Always Artichoke, filled it in with an Aquapainter and Not Quite Navy ink and punched it out with the 3/4" circle punch. I played with the arrangement of the circles until I liked the layout and then glued them down (the Earth image is adhered with a Dimensional).

Honestly, this card didn't turn out how I imaged. It was yet another case of something being lost in translation between my head and my hands. But I'm still pretty happy with the end product.

Now with my cards made, I just need to do my Christmas shopping, gift-making, wrapping, decorating, maybe some baking ... I'd better get busy! Thanks for stopping by!