Wishing You Joy!

I fell in love with this beautiful paper when I saw it, and knew I had to make some cards with it. It's called Alpine Snow Lace from KI Memories Holiday Collection. The snowflakes could coordinate with SU Burgundy or Cranberry Paper, or even Pomegranite a little bit. But the background of the paper made it more of a challenge. It's very shimmery, not exactly white, or vanilla, but kind of silver. The opposite side of the snowflake side is solid "shimmer" so you could use that to coordinate a layer on your card.

The stamp I used is from Stampendous, and I purchased it from eclecticPaperie, but I don't know if it's still availalbe. It's called "Joy Brackets" I outlined the swirls with my currently favorite toy, my sakura stardust pen. It's so great to get glitter exactly where you want it in such small detail!

And finally, because it was hard to find a coordinating color with the shimmery snowflakes and the burgundy, I fell back on black, as Jami likes to say. This allowed me to add a touch of black velvet ribbon, purchased from Fabric Barn in Long Beach, as well as a wilver swirl clip, some black brads. The card is a tent fold, and is edged with burgundy ink around all the vanilla paper edges with a sponge dauber. Easy and elegance... what could be better?

JOY is a favorite word of mine at this time of year, because so many things can try to rob our joy. For me, it's the financial stress of the holidays. I'm already nervous about it, and as my two teenager's lists get longer and longer, and more expensive, it can be easy for forget the true meaning of Christmas... the joy that came to earth in the form of the Christ child. This card is my wish for YOU and my reminder for myself to remember to focus on all the right things during the next 2 months. Wishing you Joy!