reindeer and stickers adventures

It's never too early for Christmas if you want to send unique and heartfelt, handmade cards, is it?  I missed a week at Jingle Belles, so I decided to make it up at Merry Monday, where Colleen requested reindeer.  I was stuck for few days, though, because my only vision was the reindeer from Santa's Sleigh (a Holiday catalog item that's still available!). With nothing in the vision for background or support, it was a terribly dull card.  The colors and design team inspiration at Christmas Card Throwdown got me unstuck:

stamp set - Holly Jolly Greetings; ink - Chocolate Chip; Pool Party; stampin' sponge; card stock - Very Vanilla, Pool Party, Chocolate Chip; Big Shot with Santa's Sleigh and Banners framelits and Woodlands embossing folder

Feeling successful with that effort, I decided to be brave and try the "stick-y & sweet" challenge from Jingle Belles.  It was a challenge for me - I'm pretty dependent on Stampin' Up! supplies for assurance that the colors and design elements work together, and they don't have stickers.  I knew I had some somewhere, though, so I went searching and found a whole package of Recollections sentiments. They seemed to match ok with the glitter-swirled die-cut trees that were in the same miscellaneous Christmas supplies box:

card stock - Bermuda Bay, Pear Pizzazz

I knew I had some EAD Designs stickers somewhere, too (because sweet Amy Tsuruta sent me some a few years ago!), but it took me a long time to find them; they were in a miscellaneous box of non-Christmas supplies.  While I was searching, I saw my old Dasher stamp and thought his elegant antlers would coordinate well with the flourishes in this sentiment:

stamp set - Dasher (retired); ink - Encore Silver (retired), Basic Black (on envelope); Stampin' Emboss powder - Silver; card stock - Old Olive; designer series paper - All is Calm (retired)

This one works for both Jingle Belles and Merry Monday, and now I'm one week ahead with Christmas cards instead of one week behind - bonus!