The Simply Sweet Christmas Inspiration Hop!

Welcome to 

The Simply Sweet 

Christmas Inspiration Hop!  

Lesley Croghan, has asked The Challenge Design Team and special guest, Julee Tilman to join her in an inspiration blog hop focusing on Last Minute Simple Yet Sweet Christmas cards or tags.  The Hop begins on Lesley's blog, Always Playing With Paper.  

Hop through the list below, visiting each blog and leaving a comment:

Lesley Croghan

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kelly Lunceford

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld (You are HERE)

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger

I made two sets of five cards for the Hop.

Stamps: Plaid background stamp (Catherine Pooler); Merry Christmas sentiment -"Here We Come A Caroling" (Catherine Pooler); Beep Beep sentiment and VW Bug - "Driving to the Holidays" (Flora & Fauna).
Paper: Neenah 110 lb white cardstock; black cardstock.
Ink: Brights - Party Collection (Catherine Pooler); Muted colors - Spa Collection (Catherine Pooler); Midnight Archival Ink (Catherine Pooler).
Extras: Wonky stitched rectangle die (Stamplorations); Reindeer antler dies (Flora & Fauna). Red pearl gem.

I was originally going to make just five cards but I was loving how they turned out so I decided to use more muted colors and stamp five more.  I started by cutting out all the little reindeer antlers.  Then I cut 10 sheets of white Neenah cardstock 4-1/4"x4-1/2" and five more at 4-1/4x5-1/2".  I also cut 10 small strips from black cardstock for a border between the plaid and white cardstock. I took the 10 pieces of cardstock and mass stamped the sentiments together in black archival ink using my Misti.  I switched stamps and stamped the VW bug above the sentiment in each color.  Next I inked up the plaid background stamp by Catherine Pooler, inking one half of the stamp with the bright red (Rocket Red) and the other half with the muted red (Peppermint Scrub) and continued this process with each color.  I only needed a small 1-1/2 inch piece of plaid for the bottom portion of my card so I found it saved a lot of time (and ink) to double up colors on the stamp halves. I used the larger five white cardstock pieces to stamp the plaid.  After stamping everything, I cut each plaid color to two inches (left a little to overlap under the top white cardstock).  I adhered the plaid piece to the stamped white cardstock piece and ran it through my Big Shot to cut the stitched border.  I adhered all the top pieces to white cardbases, glued on the black strip and all the antlers and added the red gem to the car front.

Lesley is also offering a prize of 4 matching Christmas cards handmade by her. She will send them to one random winner. 

In order to qualify to win please...

1. Visit each blog in the hop and leave them a comment.
2. Leave a comment on Lesley's blog telling her about your "Christmas Cards"...how many do you make and what style do you usually use?

The Giveaway Contest closes on Saturday, December 2nd.

Simply Sweet Christmas Blessings!