scraps adventure

Did you think we were done with Christmas cards?  Not if you've been following along at Jingle Belles Rock!

I was happy/proud/excited to send hand-made Christmas cards to everyone on our list this year, and it wasn't stressful at all, thanks to the Jingle Belles' mission to take back December one holiday card at a time!  What about you?  This year they've changed up a bit and are giving us two weeks for each of 24 prompts, so if I hope to mail 60+ hand-made cards again this year, stress-free, I'll need to make at least two cards for each challenge.

Knowing this, did I start right out at the beginning of January with the first idea, which Stef and Lauren generously posted early?  No, no, I did not.  The prompt was No Time Like the Present(s) to incorporate gift wrap or an image of present(s).  I spent a week and a half lamenting my fate that this was one of the few years I saved not one scrap of wrapping paper after the gifts were opened.  Finally it occurred to me to put away the unused wrapping paper and lo and behold, there were two or three pieces really too small for gifts that could easily be incorporated into greeting cards!  And since I had already sorted out the images of present(s) that I had available, they were also easy to incorporate:

stamp set - Polar Party; ink - Basic Black; Stampin' Write markers - Certainly Celery, Real Red, Daffodil Delight; card stock - Certainly Celery, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point; punch - Lace Ribbon border; stamp-a-majig

The ribbon-like element below the sentiment and the mat under the image were snipped from scraps of gift wrap and provided my color scheme, a little unusual for Christmas, but cheery.  The perky little penguin looked somewhat jaundiced after I stamped directly on the Daffodil Delight, so I pulled out my freshly-practiced paper-piecing skills to correct that misstep.

The layout came from Lesley Croghan's new Merry Monday Challenge at Always Playing with Paper.  WooHoo!  More great sketches!

Another new site on my list, Eat Sleep Stamp Sketchy Thursday #155 provided the layout for this card: 

stamp sets - Petite Pairs, Punch Pals; ink - Real Red; card stock - Real Red, Whisper White; punch - extra-large oval; 5/8" Whisper White organza ribbon, red satin ribbon of unknown origin, Stampin' Dimensionals

I loved that the Petite Pairs sentiment fit the oval punch - I was pretty sure I needed that stamp set because it provides matching outside/inside sentiments, but I wasn't convinced I could work with the smaller sizes - it was the only one I own that allowed me to place the oval vertically.  Noticing the glare on the gift wrap in my photo makes me think I could have used silver glimmer paper as a mat for the gift wrap and the oval.  Not that it would have helped the glare but it might distract us, and it would decrease the starkness of the design.  Too bad that was my last scrap of that wrapping paper...