Keeping Christmas February 2019 Blog Hop

Welcome to this month's edition of the Keeping Christmas Blog Hop.  It has been a zoo in my life for the last several weeks so I'm very happy that I got some projects finished for this hop!  When time is short, it's easiest to select some patterned paper to fit your theme and do a bit of die cutting for your elements and then just get going on your design.  My original plan was to do just a single card, but it was so easy to pull a few cards together, so I just cut a few more of each piece and made 6 cards in total with a few variations for you.

For several years now I've had this Close To My Heart Stamp Set and matching Designer Series Paper.  I actually have 4 -12 x 12 sheets of this particular paper.  I wanted to use something that had a Christmas Sweater kind of vibe and this was an easy choice.  There are a few embossing folders out there that have the sweater look too, but I don't have any of them yet, so for today, the cards are nice and easy.

I also wanted to show you a few ways to change things up so that each card is indeed unique,  For example, on these cards, I changed up the colors and the way the pattern of the background paper is oriented to give each card a different look.  I used cardstock in Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist and Smokey Shadow for the various elements.  I did not try heat embossing the sentiment on to Smokey Shadow Cardstock with one of the other colors but that's a possibility that I did not try here.

For this card, I put the background vertically for a different look than the traditional horizontal sweater.  It is a completely different look and those vertical lines are cool.  Who doesn't want to look tall and skinny!

I also played around with different embellishments like sequins but in the end, there weren't any sequins that I felt added to the card so I kept it simple by using the Black Gloss Nuvo Drops in the center of the flowers - all the different varieties.  In the first image, I hadn't yet added any embellishments so that you can see if adding them would be a win for you.  I personally like the payoff I got for a little bit of extra work that I did while catching up on some of my TV Shows that were recorded.  Here are all the stops along the hop:

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

Nancy Guse

Thanks so much for stopping by today and be sure to ask if you have any questions.  The thing I most enjoy about the Keeping Christmas Blog Hop is the fact that I am using things I already have to create a few cards at a time.  All of the cardstock I used today is from Papertrey Ink.