The Challenge Simply Sweet Christmas Inspiration Hop

Hello!  I've got a special treat for you today!  All of the ladies and a few friends from The Challenge Blog Design Team are doing a blog hop today over on Lesley's Blog, Always Playing With Paper, where we focus on last minute cards or tags for the Holiday Season.  Here's the rest of the line up for you:

Lesley Croghan

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tillman

Kelly Lunceford

Kim Heggins

Lori Techler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld
Vicki Finger (You are here)

I have a fun, but beautiful card design for you today featuring Papertrey Ink's Silver White Winters Stamps and Dies. This has been one of my favorite designs this year. 

As a card maker, one of the things I do is to cut extras of something that I know I am likely to use more of on another card. In this case, when I made the original card in Silver and Dark Blue, I knew that I would use more of these beautiful snowflakes if I got the chance so I cut extras.  They are a set of four dies with two styles, one large and one small.  They could be used to pull together a quick card or tag anytime.  Is there anyone, anywhere who doesn't think snowflakes are beautiful?  I don't know anyone who doesn't like to look at them.  I even appreciate a good snowfall every year although that may be because I live in an area that doesn't get too many annual storms. We usually get one big snowfall and we've been lucky that mostly those have occurred on the weekends when we are at home.  So, I think snowflakes are always a good choice for a quick card or tag. 

Another little trick I've learned is that when I need a quick anything, I try to let my background paper or cardstock do a whole lot of the talking for me.  In this case, I used this gold foiled music paper for my card front making it so I didn't even have to do any stamping to pull this quick card together.  I had previously stamped some additional banners when I was working on another project so I had them ready to go. I figure that if I already have the MISTI set up, I might as well do a few extras "just in case".  You can put the extras in a little zipper bag to keep similar styles of things together. The dies I get from Papertrey Ink come in heavy zipper bags and I have a tendency to keep some of the smaller ones for just such an occasion.  At certain times of the years, I have several of those little bags of goodies sitting on my desk, ready to go.  I always have cardstock cut and ready to go for Top Folding Vertical or Horizontal Card (I take mine to an office supply place to have it cut).  

Even when it is not the holiday season, I always have bits and pieces left from cards that can be pulled into a quick card or tag. So when you cut a few for a specific card, go ahead and cut a few more and tuck them away.  

Specialty Cardstock is another good choice if you are in a hurry and one of my favorites is Shimmer Cardstock.  You can put your own card kits together by doing just one of these things every time you have a few minutes.  It can be overwhelming to create a pile of cards; not only to do it, but to find the time in a busy schedule.  There's always something that needs our attention as wives and mothers but if you can have 5 minutes to do some die cutting, then 10 minutes the next day to stamp some sentiment banners or strips (I used a banner from Keep It Simple Frames here), then five more minutes on a third occasion to cut 4.25 x 5.5 inch card background panels, pretty soon you'll have the makings for several last minute cards.  I love adding special touches to my cards as well, like the little jewels you see in the center of my snowflakes.  I don't want those to fall off so I use Ranger Multi Medium Matte to adhere them.  Once I have the jewel placed, I set an acrylic block on top for a few minutes while I glue the next card in the pile. You can see how that can all add up to a stash of "just in case" cards.  Don't become obsessed with making sure they are all exactly the same; it's the handmade touch that makes them special.

You can also do the same for some last minute gift tags.  Tags can be found almost anywhere if you don't have a tag die of some kind and they can be handy for a last minute gift tag any time of year.  Dollar Tree will often have some in the gift wrap area and you can personalize them with just a few little holiday die cuts.  Holly always seem festive to me with the red and green or you can use something in a less traditional but more elegant style and color palette like the Wine Bottle Tag I made here.

Keep your sentiments simple and more generic so that it will work for whatever you need.  A sentiment such as Merry & Bright Works for pretty much any holiday theme.  

I hope I was able to give you some ideas today for those last minute cards and tags you may need.  With just a few minutes of prep work, you can have a great looking card in minutes.  If you'd like to see larger images, click on them to go to a bigger version.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a great time going around the hop to see all of the projects and inspiration.  Be sure to come back here later though because I'm also participating in the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop today.

Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder Shop at: SSS	Kokuyo Long Dot Runner Adhesive Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Silver White Winters Stamp Set Shop at: PTI
Silver White Winters Dies Shop at: PTI	WPLUS9 Gift Card Layers Designer Dies Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink Keep it Simple Frames Shop at: PTI	Versamark Ink Shop at: PTI | SSS
Wagner Heat Tool Shop at: SSS	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine Shop at: SSS	Papertrey Ink Gold Shimmer Cardstock Shop at: PTI	Papertrey Ink Wine Bottle Tag II Shop at: PTI
Spellbinders Holly Jolly Dies Shop at: SSS