I have a trio of Christmas cards to show you today and when I set out to make these I had 3 criteria I wanted to meet:  1)  I wanted my Christmas cards to be personalized; 2) I wanted them to be easy to reproduce in bulk; and 3) I wanted a good dose of  *Pretty* and/or *WOW*.  Here’s a group shot:

They are rather hard to see in this photo, so I will give you close ups below.  First I’ll show you the personalization I was after:

It’s clean, it’s simple, it was easy to color and VERY easy to reproduce once the 2″ Stamper with Bonus 15 pt Font was set up with my personalization.  Starting with the mistletoe center from A Merry Little Christmas — I used it on the 1 5/8″ Stamper, colored with Copics and cut and embossed with a Petite Circle Nestability.  Next I set up my 2″ Wood Stamper using *Sending Holiday Joy* from Holiday Demi Phrases on top.  Demi Phrases are 1/2 circle sentiments for the top of the circle, allowing us to customize the bottom half, which is just what I did.  The 2″ Stamper can be purchased with Bonus 15 pt Font. This 15 pt font can be used in the border circle — see how I’ve done *From the Johnsons 2009*?  It probably took me 5 or 10 minutes to set up my stamper, but once its done, it’s done!  I’m fortunate to have several 2″ stampers, so I’m going to leave this one just as is through the Christmas card making seaon.  It’ll be ready for me whenever I need it.  I can easily insert any variety of images into the center.

Here are the stamps as I have used them.  The 15 pt Font comes on a tray along with little tweezers you can use to pick out the letters and insert them into the border ring.  It’s kind of hard to see, but can you see the Demi Phrase on top, and my own lettering on the bottom?  Now I’m all set for my holiday card making!!!  The 1 5/8″ Stamper shown holds the mistletoe image.  And remember, it’s a good idea to cut the excess rubber off the center stamps so they don’t collect that excess ink and leave unsightly marks.  Cutting is A-OK — I do it ALL the time!

This is what the 3 sets I used look like in their packaging.  A Merry Little Christmas is laying on the bottom — the title doesn’t show.  And I do want to point out, if you do want an extra 2″ Stamper  just so you can keep your holiday personalization set up through the season, they can be purchased separately as well.  In my opinion, it’s well worth it.  I also keep one stamper set up through graduation season as I like to personalize those cards with our school name and the year.

OK, now on to better views of each card.

Aren’t these colors gorgeous for the holidays? I just love them (listed in recipe)!!!  My ribbon is the  Burgundy 100% Silk and my bow is made on the Bow Easy.  The DP is SU.

Three simple layouts today — tried and true.  I firmly believe in keeping it simple for Christmas. There is so much to stress over during holiday preparation — let’s enjoy making our cards without a lot of fuss and fretting! 

The first 2 cards were standard A2 sized at 4.25 x 5.5″.  This one is a 4.25″ square.  I do like this size for a change every once in a while!  You can read this post to learn how to do this bow treatment.

______________________________

Stamps:  A Merry Little Christmas Set, used on the 1 5/8″ Wood Stamper, Holiday Demi Phrases, used on the 2″ Wood Stamper with Bonus Font and Center, all by JustRite

Paper:  PTI Vintage Cream; Prism Spring Willow Dark and Blush Red Dark; SU Merry Moments DP.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black for image; VersaFine Onyx Black for sentiment.  Copics to color.

Accessories:  100% Silk Ribbon by May Arts, Bow Easy, Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders, Scor-It, SU Corner Rounder, SU Dimensionals, Aleene’s Fast Grab Tacky Glue

Shopping:

JustRite Stampers offers the sets used today (all linked above) as well as all of the JustRite Line.

Stamp Simply Ribbon Store offers the following items used on today’s project:

A Merry Little Christmas, Holiday Demi Phrases, 2″ Wood Stamper with Bonus  Font, 1 5/8″ Stamper, all by JustRite

1.25″ and 1/4″ Burgundy 100% Silk Ribbon By May Arts and the Bow Easy

Petite Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders

VersaFine Onyx Black Ink

Scor-It

______________________________

And that’s it for my project, but I have MANY fun places to link you to today to inspire you further with Christmas projects in mind.  Here we go:

The 3 sets I used here today are the subject of today’s Product Focus over at SCS.  You can click here to read the reviews AND to see the UTube video  showing how to fully utilize the 2″ Stamper. Don’t miss it!

And these JustRite Designers have come up with some GREAT projects for you using these same 3 sets:

Michelle Kovack
Lauren Meader
Sharon Harnist
Lisa Somerville
Kathy Jones
Angela Barkhouse
Debbie Olson

Barb Schram
JR Blog

Michelle Wooderson will have a project up on Thursday.

Thank you all for stopping in today.  I truly do appreciate it.  I’ll be back on  Thursday night with our Friday Stamp Simply challenge this week — a fun one!!!  Hope to see you then!!!  Have a great Thursday, everyone!