Christmas cards from the retreat swap

First of all, this is the card I made for the swap. I procrastinated as usual. I feel more and more like I'm not procrastinating the same way I used to. I used to procrastinate because I didn't want to do something. Now I'm just crazy busy and don't have time to do things and always end up doing them the last minute. I realized Friday night about 8 that I needed 30 swaps for the retreat the next day - AND I had to leave home at 5AM to get there. Hummm, not much sleep for me that night! I got the cards cut and stamped but added the ribbon and attached the snowflake piece to the card on the way to Huntsville. I drove to Nashville and rode the rest of the way with some of the other demonstrators in my group. It was about 2 more hours from Nashville.

The pictures aren't very good, too much rain around here lately to have natural light. You can't tell on my card that the background is embossed with the small dots Texturez Plate. It doesn't look quite as plain in real life as it does in the picture. I used the Serene Snowflakes set, one of the great sets featured in the Stampin' Up Holiday Mini catalog.

This next card was made by Sherry Pemberton and features theDasher stamp, one of the under $10 stamps in the back of the catalog. The silver snowflake is so cute tied with the ribbon. She also used the Fineal Press embossing folder on the red layer and you have to look close to see the glitter on his antlers, the perfect touch for this card.



Mary Robinson always does great cards. She stamped 4 of the little reindeer from the Winter Post set and embossed them with silver embossing powder. I love the way she tied on the Silver Cord at the top of the card.

Monica spent hours on these tags, I'm sure. For 30 people in the swap, she made 2 each of 1o designs. If I can manage to do some math this late, that is 600 punches! THEN she had to tie the gold and silver cord to each of those 600 tags. She even added some glitter and embossing to many of the tags. She makes me feel like a slacker!


Monica even packaged her tags into a great little bag with a Top Note die topper. Very nice gift!

The last card I'll share tonight is by Pam Vandever. She used the negative from the Top Note die to sponge on some blue ink, I think it is Bermuda Bay. I think that is a great look, I love how you can fade it out in the middle and around your stamped images. She also used the Serene Snowflakes set with the great Platinum Shimmer paint. That paint is so pretty, I'm loving using it. The bottles are small but they go a long way.

That is the first 5 of the Christmas cards that I got in the swap. I'll try to post 5 more tomorrow. I also have to dig the sweet potatoes, go to a wedding and a meeting so it will be a busy day. I guess that is what the hours between 10PM and midnight are for, right??