Merry Monday #263 "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"

Welcome to this week's Merry Monday Christmas Challenge! I LOVE this week's inspiration photo, in fact, I think I have it pinned somewhere on one of my Pinterest boards somewhere! LOL! Isn't it just lovely and inspiring? You can check out all of the rules and guidelines for the challenge HERE as well as see the gorgeous creations by the rest of the designers!

I had already been working on a hot cocoa project, which I will be sharing soon, and had pulled out Cup of Cheer as a possibility for that, but ended up not using it. I thought it would be perfect for today's card! All of my color cues came from the piece of plaid paper that I chose to use as the background which reminded me of the inspiration photo.

To begin, I cut a card base from Kraft cardstock and then layered the plaid patter paper over the top. I also added a strip of whitewashed wood that I thought worked nicely with the challenge. 

After that was done, I heat embossed the "Holly Jolly" sentiment in white onto a rectangle of True Black cardstock. After that was done, I smudged some Fresh Snow ink over the top using my fingertip. I just love chalkboard designs and follow quite a few chalkboard artists on Instagram. I love being able to recreate this look using stamps and ink! I also rubbed a little bit of ink around the edges as well. 

Once that was done, I die cut all of the cups, flowers and teapot out of Stamper's Select White Cardstock and stamped them in coordinating inks. It was so much fun arranging all of the bits and pieces here and there! Once everything was adhered to the card, I gave it a good spritz of Shimmer Spray for some sparkle. I added some Nuvo Crystal Glaze over the top of the flowers and the red cup and saucer. The finishing touches are a bow of black baker's twine and a few Sparkling Clear Sequins to frame the sentiment. I had a lot of fun putting this card together. I have been listening to Christmas music pretty much nonstop the last little while as I was preparing THIS and THIS project. I can't believe Halloween is tomorrow! It's one of my favorites! Thanks for fluttering by!