Day 9: Merry mouse

How are your Christmas or holiday cards coming along this year? Have you already finished them? Or are you having trouble getting started? If you're looking for some inspiration, you've come to the right place. Today is the ninth day in my 12 Days of Christmas Cards blog series, and I'm going to share a card featuring a merry little mouse.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Christmas Story and Jolly Friends (Penny Black), Christmas Sampler (Paper Smooches)
Paper: Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, colored pencils (Prismacolor)
Accessories: Ovals Collection and Deco Labels Framelits dies, Occasions Paper-Piercing Pack, paper-piercing tool, pearls, gold baker's twine, Dimensionals

This card was a bit challenging for me. I stamped, colored, cut out and pierced the focal image, but then I couldn't figure out what to do with it. After playing around with different colors and layouts, I decided to use a Real Red card base to pull out the pops of red in the focal image. To add some interest to the base, I stamped a background stamp filled with Christmas-related words.

For the mat I die cut one of the Deco Labels shapes from Chocolate Chip card stock. I cut off the rounded sides of the shape, leaving just the bracket-type edges, and adhered it vertically to the card base. I used Dimensionals to attach the focal image over the mat and added a pearls at the top and bottom of the mat. To finish the card I wrapped gold baker's twine twice around the bottom of the card and tied it in a knot.

Remember, for links to all of the cards posted as part of my blog series, check out the main 12 Days of Christmas Cards post. Thanks for stopping by!