More Christmas Cards...

I am STILL working on Christmas cards -- or at least I was until a few hours ago! As of last weekend, I had made 55 -- I thought I had more than enough. Then I started to address the envelopes... I realized that I missed quite a few people, then the mail came all week and I realized I missed more than I thought! The final total is around 75 - so to the studio I went, determined to finally finish the adventure. And finish I did! I made two more cards, 12 of each, to top off the stash of cards. If more names come up, I will have to scrounge up some others from my swap and premade boxes...I am done making Christmas Cards!

Here is the first card I made today. It used the tree, star and snowflake from Hanna Stamps. I love the playful whimsy of these stamps, don't you? I paired these with a vertical verse stamp I bought yesterday for $1.00 (Studio G) when I bought my $45.00 Brilliance Pad (that story is below).



The tree was colored using the Gamsol Pearls technique from the June 2006 issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter. The snow is texture paste with a dash of glitter, and the snowflakes behind the verse are glittered, too. The designer paper and the ribbon is from Stampin' Up!


Want to hear something funny? My DH really loves this card. It's funny because this is the paper that he HATES -- he doesn't like the color combination. Hmmm...he never noticed that it is the same designer paper!


The second card didn't scan well -- put it is very cheery! This 4" x 8" card is on shimmery card stock (the blue, purple and white are all shimmery). The snowmen stamp is from Stamps Happen (they were also found in my bag during the $45.00 Brilliance pad shopping trip). The fun shimmer behind the snowmen is the Oh-So-Fru-Fru technique from the August 2007 issue of the Technique Junkie Newsletter. "Rejoice" is a retired Stampin' Up! stamp.

So this is the count:

• 15 Peace on Earth cards
• 20 Snowman/Joy cards (I changed it from what is shown below)
• 20 Sandy Claws cards (these took me FOREVER)
• 12 Merry-Merry-Merry cards
• 11 Rejoice cards

Enough!
Okay, so why did I buy a $45.00 Brilliance Pad?
Well, I didn't, exactly : ) One of the TJ subscribers submitted a technique to me for consideration and I was trying it out on Monday. The recipe called for a Gold Brilliance Pad. My pad was REALLY dry, so I put it aside and tried the technique with a Copper Brilliance pad. The copper worked okay, but I could tell that the Technique would just POP with a gold pad. So Tuesday, I went to Michael's to get a re-inker or a pad. I have a bad history there...I always spend more than I intend. Luckily I don't ever have much time to shop!
To combat the spending issue, I decided to go to Michael's between other things I had to do on Tuesday, leaving myself a short window of time so that I couldn't browse too much... I mean, we are talking SHORT. I had about 10 minutes in the store to get what I needed and check out.
Well...the Brilliance Pad cost me $45.00. Dang, man, I just can't help myself! Lotsa dollar stamps, some storage (I am always running out of storage space, I wonder why???), and, of course, the accursed Brilliance Pad. All in 10 minutes. Holy cow, it is a good thing I didn't have more time!!! At least, I am certain that I am in good company -- chances are this happens to YOU too!
The technique was worth it, though...and I was right, gold was better than copper!