August Christmas cards: Happiest holidays

We've had a lot of heat and humidity lately, so it feels a little weird to make holiday cards with snowflakes. But I know that fall is right around the corner, and winter will be right on its heels, so I need to keep the Christmas cards coming. Here is this month's design:

One of my goals with these cards was to use a few things I hadn't used before. I managed to do that and also use a few older items that aren't in frequent rotation. As it turns out, almost everything I used on these cards was from a different company, and for some reason that makes me extra happy. Here are the supplies:

• Brilliant Blue and Ballet Blue ink and card stock (Stampin' Up!)
• Sugar Cube ink (Taylored Expressions)
• Snowflake background (Stamp Oasis) 
  
• Jumbo Snowflake die (Erin Lee Creative)
• Snowflake Set #1 dies (Echo Park)
• Happiness stamps and dies (Honey Bee Stamps)
• Inside Greetings - Holiday (Sunny Studio) -- For the sentiment inside the cards.
• Blue rhinestones (HAI)
• Iridescent shimmer spray (Altenew)

I think most of the card design is self-explanatory, but I'll point out a few things that might be hard to notice in the pictures. First, the word "happiest" is die cut twice for each card (from Brilliant Blue card stock). I layered the pieces together before gluing them on the cards. Actually, it's two separate dies ("happ" and "iest") because the set comes with different pieces so you can make different words, like "happy," "happiness," etc. I used a blue rhinestone for the dot on the "i."

Second, the white snowflakes are only glued down in the center. I like that they curl up just a bit for a little dimension. Part of the reason they do that is because I sprayed them with iridescent shimmer mist, which the third hard-to-see detail. It's a little better in this photo:

Well, maybe that's not much better. You'll just have to trust me that they are indeed sprayed with shimmer mist. It gives the snowflakes a little oomph, so they're not just plain white card stock.

And that's it for my August Christmas cards. I should make a preliminary Christmas card list to get an estimate of how many cards I'll need. I'll probably do one more batch next month, but I'm not sure how many more I'll need after that.

Thanks for stopping by!