September's Christmas card

I've only purchased one stamp set (so far) from the 2018 Stampin' Up! Holiday Catalog, Feather & Frost. I knew as soon as I saw it that I needed that set. It arrived last week, and I used it over the weekend to make my September Christmas cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Feather & Frost, Tree Rings
Paper: Crumb Cake card stock, white 80 lb card stock (Cougar)
Ink: Crumb Cake; colored pencils: 50% French Gray, Olive Green, Crimson Lake, blender pencil (PrismaColor)
Accessories: Apothecary Accents Framelits dies, Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack, paper piercer, Baker's Twine Trio Pack, Foil Snowflakes, red pearls (Paper Pumpkin leftovers), Dimensionals, micro adhesive dots (Glue Dots)

I love the way this design turned out. I didn't originally intend to stamp all the images in Crumb Cake ink. I had grabbed that ink pad and some scratch card stock to play around with the layout. I decided on this arrangement and started stamping the images in black, but it looked much too harsh. So I scrapped that, went back to Crumb Cake, and I think it's perfect.

I lightly colored the birds and branches with colored pencils and blended them with a blender pencil. I wanted to die cut the images with a stitched-style die, but I looked through all my dies and couldn't find one that was the right size and shape. So I used this oldie but goodie from the Apothecary Accents Framelits set. I was really excited when I remembered that I have a paper-piercing guide for this die shape, so I ended up with a stitched look after all, although it was a bit more work.

I cut a gold foil snowflake in half and adhered the two pieces to a Crumb Cake card base stamped with the Tree Rings background. I used Dimensionals to attach the die cut over the snowflakes and then added two small red pearls for the berries and a small twine bow below the sentiment.

The sentiment inside the card is the main reason I wanted this stamp set. I always seem to be stressed or worried about something, so this stamp really caught my attention. And it's such a wonderful sentiment for holiday cards. Imagine how different the world would be if more people had hearts filled with peace rather than hate, jealousy, and fear.

But back to the card at hand. I stamped the sentiment in Crumb Cake and added a branch on either side as an accent. The touch of red and green is the perfect pop of color inside the card.

I started making a Christmas card list this week, and I think with all the cards I've made so far this year I should be almost done. I do still need to make some small cards to include in the little gifts I give to the delivery people from USPS, UPS, etc. I think that will be my focus for October cards.

Thanks for stopping by -- and peace to your heart!