Peace & Joy Card

 Hello again!  I've just come in from feeding the chickens that were scratching around in my front yard.  Yes, I said chickens.  Let me be clear, there's really one rooster and four hens and they aren't mine.  The neighbors to the right and left of us both have chickens.  The chickens on the left are nicely penned up and we only hear them once in a while.  The ones on the right would be called 'free range' I guess, meaning that they're in our yard at least once a day now.  Should I be outside every day checking under the bushes in the front in case they lay any eggs out there?  I surely know nothing about chickens, except how to cook the eggs and meat I get from the store, but maybe I'd better start learning.  😄  Anyway, that really has nothing to do with my card today, unless I get out my Hey Chick stamp set and create something with that.  Which really wasn't my plan for today at all.  Instead, I have another Christmas card that uses a little bit of this and a little bit of that to come together in a pleasing finished card.  At least, I think so.  Hope you like it!

I've had a pile of 2 1/2" die-cut Mint Macaron circles sitting on my desk for a good long while.  I'm not sure why I have them, but this was the day I was finally going to use them!  So the card was essentially designed around them.  And this is just a sampling of the finished cards made with those circles.

The card base is Shaded Spruce to go with the Mint Macaron.  There is a layer of Basic White cardstock both inside and outside that measures 5 1/4" x 4".  The outside piece is embossed with the Merry Melody 3D Embossing Folder.  It needed to be defined a bit more, so I used a Blending Brush and Crumb Cake ink to lightly go over the notes.  Before attaching this to the card front, a piece of Soft Succulent 1/2" Satin Shimmer Ribbon was wrapped around it and attached to the back.  The color is a little different from the Mint Macaron, but I felt it blended well because of the sheen on the satin ribbon.  The layer was then attached to the card front using Tombow Multi Purpose Liquid Glue.

I looked through my stash of sentiment stamps to find one to fit the die-cut circle.  I came across the new Framed & Festive stamp set that is only available until the end of the year.  This had a longer sentiment with the words I wanted as part of it.  I placed it on the Stamparatus and used a Shaded Spruce marker to color only the words I wanted.  I needed to stamp it twice to get a decent enough image.  Then I stamped the single pine branch from the Christmas Season stamp set twice (on page 44 in the Annual Catalog).  I used Shaded Spruce ink, and off-stamped before stamping on the circle.

The holly leaves from the Christmas Season set were stamped with Mint Macaron ink onto Basic White cardstock.  Then the centers were stamped with Shaded Spruce ink.  The pinecone was stamped with Crumb Cake for the solid stamp and Soft Suede ink for the detail stamp.  These were also stamped on Basic White.  After stamping, they were all die-cut using the coordinating Seasonal Layers Dies.

To attach this to the card front, the tip of the two holly leaves were adhered to edge of the circle.  The pinecone was attached to this with a Dimensional.  The whole focal image was attached with many Dimensionals holding it up right over the ribbon.  There were three of the gold Festive Pearls added to the card for bling.  At this point, I knew it needed something more, but was having trouble deciding what it needed.  My daughter had stopped in and suggested adding a bow made of gold trim.  It was tucked in under the pinecone and attached with a Mini Glue Dot.  Just what it needed!

The last thing needed on the card was the Basic White layer for the inside of the card.  I used a sentiment from the Hope & Peace stamp set.  It's stamped with Shaded Spruce ink over on the left side.  Then a pinecone was stamped in the corner using the same colors as before.  The single pine branch was stamped with Shaded Spruce ink that had been off-stamped before stamping.  This was stamped several times to fill it in nicely.  Then it was attached to the inside of the Shaded Spruce card.  Another small batch of Christmas cards finished.

I hope you aren't getting tired of the Christmas Season stamp set yet.  This has truly become my favorite stamp set this year.  So sorry to keep going back to it again and again.  I promise to pick a different stamp set next time I go downstairs to create!

Just wanted to post the links for the retiring list for you.  Just click on either link below to see the lists of either retiring or carry over products.

Chance Products from July–December 2022 Mini Catalog

Carry Over List

Thanks for stopping by again today.  I appreciate the time you take to check out my blog.  Leave a comment if you can.  I'd love to hear from you.

Happy stamping and creating,

Sharon