Have a Holly {JOLLY} Christmas

 Hello and welcome, friends! I hope you're having a wonderful week! I've been having the best time creating and crafting, getting in the Christmas spirit! I love this time of year and wish I could savor it a bit longer; it seems to go by in a flash!

My card for today is based on a store-bought Christmas card I had saved in my Christmas inspiration folder. The reason why I am particularly drawn to the card is because of its colors, clean design, and I knew it would be loads of fun to put together!  It became a scavenger hunt as I shopped my stash to find just the right elements to bring it to life!

To begin, I used two different alphabet die sets for the letters; Kelly Alpha Uppercase and Heather Uppercase for the pink L. These appear to be discontinued, but they are the ones that worked the best to recreate the look of the inspiration piece. I cut the J from More Mustard (SU!) cardstock, the O and the Y from Forest cardstock from Cardstock Warehouse, the pink L is Lovely Lady from PTI, and the other L is Pure Poppy, also from PTI. I cut all of them twice with the exception of the green ones because that cardstock is incredibly heavy, so it didn't need any reinforcement. I wanted sturdy pieces and the double-thickness did the trick!

Once the letters were all cut, I got to work on each of the tiny elements and details that are included. The holly and berries are from the Curio: Attic Ornaments Die as well as the little bows on the ornament and the tiny gift, and the red "sparkle". I cut the leaves from New Leaf and Pure Poppy cardstock, both from PTI. I didn't have a gift die that was small enough, so I simply cut a tiny box from the same New Leaf cardstock and added the red bow using liquid glue.

The little sparkles and dots are from assorted die sets: the sparkles (besides red) and the dots are from the Build--a-Christmas Tree Die as well as the ornament and ornament topper. The tree and star are from the Winter Globes: Believe Die.  The bow at the top was an add-on (the inspiration piece did not have bow, but a flower that I couldn't replicate) and was cut using the Wrap-it Ribbons Die from Lovely Lady cardstock.

Once I had all of the letters and details ready to go, it was time to assemble the card. I tried the Press n-Seal technique, which has never failed me before, but it didn't work with this card so I just did everything with as much precision as possible using tweezers to help. I cut an oval from vellum using the Love to Layer: Ovals Die and placed everything using tiny bits of foam tape and liquid glue. Once it was all done, I gave it a spritz of Shimmer Spray-Sparkle. I also gave the bows, ornament, star and holly berry a tiny gem for added sparkle.

Once I had everything glued and in place, I realized it was off-center! Eeek! I decided to balance it out by adding a trio of sparkling clear sequins. I really didn't want to do that, but it was the only way to fix it without ruining the entire thing! The original card was very white and CAS, but I chose to bring my own style to the project and layered it on a piece of floral holiday paper. I simply turned the oval over and strategically added foam squares where they were directly underneath and attached it to the floral paper and card base. 

I love how it this card came out and now I can get it out of my head! ha ha! Thanks for fluttering by!