Keeping Christmas with Glad Tidings

It's the 25th of the month and time to join some of my crafty friends for our monthly Keeping Christmas Inspiration Hop! The idea of the hop is to bring you a little inspiration throughout the year and also have some Christmas cards and projects in our stash all ready to go for December 2018. If you've already been hopping along, you should have arrived from Claire's blog. If you're just popping in, read on for all the details!

Confession time. No matter how on top of things I felt in January, February is down in the trenches real life around these parts. So as I was sitting in a bookstore in between birthday parties yesterday afternoon and happened to flip through a magazine that had a Christmas card in it, I thought, "I should totally start working on my Keeping Christmas project for this month." Then I panicked... "is today the 25th? Mark, what day is it? Is it the 25th? Oh good, it's ONLY the 24th!" Man, did a month fly by quickly, or what?! So after we got home late last night I started my last minute Christmas project. I guess a little late night stamping each month beats nights and nights of it in December!  LOL

My go to when I'm crunched for time is a square card. I really like how easy layouts come together in this size. I typically make my square cards 4.25" x 4.25" so they can fit in a regular A2 envelope. I  knew I didn't want to dig in the back of the closet to get the Christmas papers I packed away and risk waking up the twins, so I decided to pull out my box of Christmas scraps. I sort my holiday scraps by color... mostly red, mostly green, mostly neutral, or non-traditional piles. The reds called to me, and I started by cutting 2" squares out of four different scrap papers. I sponged lightly around each square with antique linen  and vintage photo distress ink, then sticky taped them together in a square formation.

Next I cut two stitched circles and left the die cut in the die to use as a stencil to sponge a nice soft glow of antique linen around the inner part of the circle. This is a great way to get the contrast effect of a mat without adding an extra layer of cardstock, plus it can really add a lot of depth to your project. I chose two different sentiments from the Beyond Measure stamp set for my similar but different cards. Next I cut the leafy branch die from the coordinating Christmas Spirit Die Set four times and used the MISTI to line them up easily and stamp with moss ink. I watercolored with the same ink just to fill in the leaves.  Then I added some seam binding and paper flowers and layered it all together.  I felt the Christmas blessings needed a little something more, so I took a tiny distressed tag from my stash and inked up the glad and tidings words separately to fit it, before adding to the project.

So there you have it, my February last minute installment for Keeping Christmas. Hope you enjoyed it! If you're looking for some new Christmas stamps, Verve's Christmas products are 25% off today only (2/25/18). 

Okay, now it's time to hop along and check out all the other fabulous posts on the hop. I'm so excited to hop along and see everyone's creations! The hop is hosted on the fabulous Kelly Lunceford's blog, so head over there to start from the beginning. Or continue on to visit Kim Heggins if you've already been hopping along!

Kelly Lunceford

Lesley Croghan

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman {You are here}

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger

Enabler's List
Stamps: Beyond Measure (Verve Stamps)
Paper: various designer papers, cream (Neenah)
Ink: early espresso (SU!), antique linen, vintage photo distress (Ranger), Moss (Altenew)
Accessories: Christmas Spirit Die Set (A Cut Above by VERVE), stitched circle dies, seam binding, paper flowers, vintage tag, MISTI, seam binding (SU!)