Peaceful banners

I finally finished making my Christmas cards this week. Whew! I was starting to get stressed about them, which makes it harder for me to come up with ideas, making me more stressed. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you. But then I realized that I had quite a few cards left over from last year, so I was set. Yay! (When I send out Christmas cards, I hand-write out a long list of recipients and next to each name I jot down which card I send them, so I don't have to worry about accidentally sending someone the same card they received last year.)

I used a couple of kits for quite a few of my Christmas cards this year, so I only created about half-a dozen new designs. I've already shared a couple of the designs (in my Same pieces, different cards and Merry Christ-moose posts), and I'll be revealing the rest in my next several blog posts. I'll start with a card featuring an elegant, but non-traditional, gold, white and gray color palette:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Paper: Basic Gray card stock, gold foil sheets, Christmas on Market Street 6" x 6" designer Paper Pad (My Mind's Eye)
Accessories: Banners Framelits dies, Christmas Greetings Thinlits dies, pearls, gold baker's twine, Mono Multi liquid glue

(Sorry the picture isn't the greatest. It gets dark so early now that I have a hard time finding a good time to take pictures.)

I tried really hard not to buy any Christmas patterned paper this year because I already have more than I need. But I couldn't resist the Christmas on Market Street pad; the colors are gorgeous, and there is a great variety of patterns -- some "basic" patterns that are good accents and others that could easily be the focal point of a card. (And really, what's one more 6" x 6" pad of paper, right? It takes up hardly any space.)

For this card design, I used three of the gold foil patterns  from the Christmas on Market Street pad and die cut a banner from each piece. I adhered the banners along the top of a Basic Gray card base and then wrapped a piece of gold baker's twine around the card, tying it off in a bow. I die cut the word "peace" out of a gold foil sheet and adhered it to the bottom right corner of the card. Three small pearls around the word are the perfect accent.

And that's it! This design could work for any occasion by just changing the patterned paper and die-cut word (or using a stamped sentiment instead).

Now I need to start getting all these cards in the mail! Thanks for stopping by!