Christmas is Coming!

Christmas is just a little over a month away and that is so hard to believe! Time has just flown.

Have you started your Christmas cards yet? It won't be long until you go to your mailbox to find that your first cards from family and friends have started to arrive. It's time for you to get started on your cards, if you haven't already!

Here are two Christmas cards to get your mind going.

The first one is a fairly traditional colored card with snowflakes. It uses TAC's new "Ornamental Snowflake" set that was featured in the Fall Supplement. Gotta love those stamps!! It is fairly simple but there are a few "extra" touches to make the card special. The snowflake in the middle of the card that is on the circle punch is popped up with pop dots and then I added Stickles to the center of the snowflake. Also, did you notice at the very bottom of the snowflake strip panel that there is a small burgandy piece of ribbon that I've made into a tabbed loop? This adds a little more visual interest to the card.

**A Handy Hint: Ribbon Loops are a great way to use up your small pieces of ribbon scrap!! You can use these ribbon loops on all themes of cards too!**

The other card is not traditional at all but that is what I really like about it--it's bright and cheery! It uses a lot of colors that are not usually associated with Christmas--Raspberry, Orange, Periwinkle & Apple Green (these are all TAC's Matchmaker white core cardstocks). It also has a white base.

I found this color combination by using my color wheel. I don't often use these colors so it was nice to find a color combo that utilized cardstock that I had but don't usually reach for.

The Joy stamp is from TAC's "Simply Christmas" stamp set and the Merry Christmas sentiment comes from the "Faith Hope Love" set. I crimped the green strip with the awesome paper crimper that is also found in The Angel Company catalog and then sanded it using a sanding block to get the white that you see on the piece.

**A handy hint: if you want to sand your paper but either your core isn't white or you don't have a sander, take a white ink pad and gently rub this on your paper and you'll get a similar look.**

I hope that this post has either inspired or motivated you! Enjoy making your Christmas cards!!