Christmas card making begins!

Howdy, strangers! It feels like I haven't sat down at the computer in weeks, when in reality it has only been days. I had the pleasure of making cards with a girlfriend on Friday night, and was it ever fun! It's always nice to have someone to talk to and new ideas to share, not to mention playing with all of her stuff *tee hee*. I even got to try out something I had never done before, heat embossing. I know, I know, with as long as I've been card making/scrapbooking, how come I had never tried this before? Well, it's simple...didn't really realize how incredibly awesome it was, not to mention the price of collecting embossing powders, heat tool, and stamps! After trying it for the first time, however, I realized how wonderful it actually is. Here's why:

Isn't that such a pretty card? It looks store bought! It's just a stamp my friend had in her collection and my own sentiment stamp, embossed in gold with red glitter glue accenting the holly berries. How simple is that? Really makes the holiday card making go a little quicker! So of course, I ran out and bought a few powders for the rest of my cards, along with the ink. I found out hubby had a heat gun down in the basement, so that saved me some cash, that's for sure! Then, when I get all of my gift certificates for Christmas (I always end up getting some crafty certificates) I can round out my collection of powder colors! :)

Here are some other beauties we made, with the card above and the Santa face card below entered into a challenge at Colorful Creations, asking for an image and sentiment on the card. I could have entered all of them!

My Mind's Eye Sweet dreams Holiday Avenue papers, handmade flower squirted with my own shimmery mist, MM brad.

Used my friend's Christmas Cricut cardtridge for this one...the tree and "Joy" (which you will notice is the negative image of another of these cards), all cut from MME Holiday paper pad mentioned above. Random ribbon scraps from my friend's stash.

Cloud 9 design sentiment, MM eyelets in pewter, embossed stamped santas, MME holiday paper.

MME paper (seeing a theme here?) Target dollar bin ribbon, Cricut cut sentiment, Jolee's poinsettia.

More Christmas cards to come, and don't forget the s4a blog hop is coming soon! Tell your friends, and hope to see you hopping along for some great prizes...can you say Echo Park? Yeah, I thought that would get your attention ;) Have a great day!