Krafty Christmas

  I am thrilled to be guesting at Jingle Belles for challenge #15:

red OR green, but NOT both!

Think about other Christmas color combos you enjoy:  red and aqua, red and purple, green and white, green and gold...just NOT red and green together.

For my card I chose red, kraft, and aqua.  I used a My Pink Stamper "Biggie Christmas" sentiment, Echo Park "a walk in the PARK" papers, Imaginisce i-Rock gems, red linen card stock, and SU ribbon.  The presents are cut @ 3" from Cricut "Birthday Bash", p.43.

I began making cards using greeting card computer software back in the 1990s.  Oh my, how far I have come!  A few years later, I was introduced to rubber stamping, and I began to make all of my holiday cards.  My very first stamped card looked like this one, that I revamped a little by adding twine, a button, and a tag:

In the beginning all of my cards were stamped in black ink and were the focal point of the card…not that there is anything wrong with that!  I slowly started buying other colored ink pads, then a few years later using patterned paper.  No more stamped backgrounds!  That was time-saving and fun.  When I started blogging five years ago, I was amazed at the talent that was out there.  I still follow those same fabulous paper crafting ladies, and a couple hundred more :)  Many of those uber-talented ladies did not stamp AT ALL.  I thought, "that is cheating!"  I am eating those words now.  I won a Cricut Expression and I have become addicted to die cutting.  Often times I use my Cricut and stamp only my sentiment.  But when I sit down to create, I do not consciously think about using the Cricut OR stamping unless there is a specific stamp I want to use or a specific image I want to cut.  I have an idea and go with it.  I have been wanting to cut these presents, and that was where my inspiration came from.  I also love red/aqua Christmas cards, so I went in search of aqua papers.  And I stamped my sentiment :)

I hope you will join me, Stef and Lauren for this challenge that will run until July 25.  Link your creation to Jingle Belles Challenge #15.  I am anxious to see what you create!  Enter as many times as you would like, but please follow the challenge rules...no serial linkers :)