Snowy night, Christmas lights

First off, I want to say a big thank you to all of our veterans and active-duty service members. Your sacrifices, strength and courage protect our country and our freedom. Happy Veteran's Day!

Now, I have two more Christmas card designs to share from my crafting day last Saturday. The first is a quiet, snowy Christmas night:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!^®, unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Pennant Parade, Many Merry Messages
Card stock: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Early Espresso
Ink: Old Olive
Accessories: Pennant Builder punch, basic rhinestones, snowflake embossing folder (Sizzix), Stampin' Dimensionals^®

I made six cards of this design, and when I made the first one, I didn't emboss the navy background with the snowflakes. It didn't look bad, but it was just a bit too plain. I wanted something subtle in the background, so I thought the embossed snowflakes would be the perfect touch. For the bottom of the card, I ripped a piece of white card stock to resemble snow. I added a rhinestone to the middle tree for just a touch of sparkle.

For the last card I made a festive string of Christmas lights:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Warmest Regards
Card stock: Whisper White, Basic Black, Wisteria Wonder, Cherry Cobbler, Island Indigo, So Saffron, Old Olive
Ink: Jet Black StazOn pad^®
Accessories: Stocking Accents die, Basic Black 1/8" taffeta ribbon, Crystal Effects, Stampin' Dimensionals, Glue Dots^®

I only made one card with this design because A) I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to put it together, B) the Crystal Effects required some drying time, and C) I didn't want to die cut Christmas lights forever. I made two die cuts for each light: one in black and one in a color. I trimmed the end off the colored lights and glued each one to a black light. Then I coated the colored part of each light with Crystal Effects for a nice shine.

Once the lights were dry, I used Glue Dots to attach them to a piece of ribbon. I originally attached the lights so they were all facing the same direction (i.e., if you held the ribbon from end to end, all the lights faced down), but once I started arranging the lights on the card, I had to pull a couple of them off the ribbon and flip them around. I used Dimensionals to attach the lights to the card, letting the ribbon bunch up and twist a bit. (I suppose if I wanted it to look really authentic, I should have put a few knots in the ribbon!)

Quick writing update: My novel for NaNoWriMo has been coming along very slowly. So far I've written 10,720 words. On the positive side, that's more than I wrote the last time I tried NaNoWriMo. The negative is that in order to reach the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel in a month, I should be around 25,000 words by Nov. 15, which is just four days away. I have a feeling that's not going to happen. But I'm going to try to keep writing at least a little bit every day, and maybe I'll surprise myself.

Thanks for stopping by.