All Is Calm, All Is Bright

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you have a great holiday week. I always take the week after Christmas off - it's a quieter week than the week leading up to Christmas, and there's no pressure to do any sort of holiday tasks. We can just enjoy the weather, the decorations and of course, the fruitcake and leftovers.

Christmas really snuck up on me this year. It feels like yesterday that I was posting my annual Christmas card breakdown on my blog for 2014! But I guess it was really 364 yesterdays.

So here goes for this year's Christmas card. This year was a record setter for me - I made and sent 200 cards this year - my highest ever. And I can say - it was also the easiest year, because I have the MISTI. Multiples are soooo easy with the MISTI.

But before we get to the process, let's talk stamps and envelopes.

I was THRILLED to see USPS' Peanuts stamps this year. They are so, so, sweet. I'm so used to traditional Christmas postage, and always love their elegant designs, but I thought the Peanuts stamps were just what we all needed this year. I snapped them up in November. Thank you USPS!

Also, I grabbed a big stack of DSP out of my Scrapbox and made some envelopes with the envelope punch board just for fun. That punch board is the best $20 I've ever spent. I didn't grab Christmas paper either - I didn't care that they didn't match my card - I just thought a little splash of color would be fun.

Here is a stack of 180 of some finished cards. I always stack them in tens like this so I can see what I have left to do very quickly. (I was sad at this point because we were watching Longmire and realized we only have three episodes left. We are saving them. )

Here's the way I had the background stamp set up in my MISTI for the stamping. I got it to work so that I could easily line up the stamp with the edge of the top panel at an angle - this made for really fast stamping while watching holiday movies and our favorite shows in early December. 

And now that it's Christmas Day, I can reveal the finished card.  I used Post-It Masking tape to create my tree - from the top corner of the top panel to the center of the card. Then I sponged just the edge with Tempting Turquoise ink to create my tree. After I did that for all the fronts, then it was easy as pie to pop them all in the MISTI and stamp the Dots for Days in Real Red ink.

I actually designed this card 100% based on the sentiment I used from Wonderland. I specifically wanted a calm, and bright card, so the soothing white space and the beautiful aqua/red combo I thought fit that bill perfectly.

I was excited when my friend Jennifer (superjen on Splitcoast) said this was her favorite of all my Christmas cards. I think it might be mine too. But I think I say that every year, so you shouldn't listen to me.


Now let's talk about getting them in the mail. I decided instead of making a video of the card this year, I'd make a video for you showing you how I manage my Christmas list throughout the year, so when the time comes it takes literally two minutes for me to print all my labels for my cards and know that my list is 100% up to date and current.

I think this is something that people spend a lot of time on, and I know a lot of people have manual, offline lists they manage - and that's no way to live, people! So I hope you enjoy this little tip.

I greatly enjoy the process of making these every year, and consider them a fun, handmade gift to people near and far.

I hope your Christmas is calm and bright. I appreciate everyone who has come here to my blog in 2015 - my customers, class students and all my stampy friends. You are my tribe.

Loveyameanitmerrychristmasbye.