Is Anybody As Freaked Out as Me That Christmas is Right Around the Corner?!!!

Happy Saturday everyone!!

Boy have we had a busy one! I did a whole lot of stamping this morning, this afternoon we braved the toy store to buy Christmas presents, and this evening we had a wonderful dinner over at "Aunt" Tracy's new apartment! Man was that fun! Izzy has been really missing her. I can't even count how many times she said Tracy's name on the car ride over. Needless to say, it was a lot.

Well, I can't panic too much that Christmas is so close. I have actually been doing really well with my shopping. I just need to buy books for all the kids, stocking stuffers for Izzy, a few small items for Jason and Tracy's gift. See not too bad. The only thing is we are leaving for Kansas City next Saturday, so that means I need to get it all completed this week. Izzy is definitely going to be going on lots of field trips to the mall!

I don't know what I will do when Izzy gets old enough to actually know that we are buying presents for her. Right now it is so nice to all go out together and pick something out. I guess next year we will have to figure out some way to buy the presents in secret and get them to grandma and grandpa's without her knowing. I think the mailman might have to be my secret helper.

I had a lot of fun today making my cards. There are some days when you feel like all the coloring that you have done and the papers you have chosen work really well together and today was that day. Sometimes, I pick papers and start coloring and for some reason they just don't work, but today everything seemed to come out just like I pictured it.

For my first card, I used my brand new Magnolia stamp, only the second one I have ever colored, to make a nice traditional Christmas card. I love my new Basic Grey Wassail paper. I don't know why I held out for so long to buy it. Anywhoo, I used the fabulous sketch over at Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge for the layout.

Isn't she lovely!! I just love these stamps!! I don't know why I don't own more of them. (Hint, hint honey!). Okay, so I started this card by stamping Tilda with Christmas Presents by Magnolia on white card stock and colored her in with my markers and copics. Using my gold glitter pen, I added some embellishments to the present and to the four corners. Following the sketch, I layered on red and green card stock, along with several different kinds of Christmas DP. I used my Martha Stewart edge punch to create the triangle border and added three brads down the side. I finished the card off by stamping the sentiment from Deer Ol Santa by SUInk and More on white card stock, cutting it out along with a piece of green card stock using my nesties, added some gold details and popped it off the card. I just love the combo of colors, they seem to scream Christmas!!

My second card for today is a funky take on Christmas. I was out collecting all of the challenges I wanted to participate in this weekend when I came across Jen Del Muro's Sketch For You To Try. I just loved the simplicity of the sketch this week and wanted to use a simple, not too complicated image for the card. Here it is!

Don't you just love this sketch!! It is so simple yet concise!! It was a lot of fun to work with! Okay, so I started this card by stamping the three potted Christmas trees from Santa's Little Helpers by SUInk and More on white card stock and colored them in with my markers and copics. I then mounted them on some pink glitter paper and popped them off the background. Following the sketch, I layered on green card stock and three different kinds of glittered Christmas card stock. I added some pink and green stitched ribbon for the final touch. Don't you just love it?! And the best part is, it was so quick to make! I honestly think it took me only 10 minutes to stamp, color and assemble after I had the papers chosen. The most difficult part was cutting the double angle in the ribbon! LOL!! Thanks Jen for your wonderful sketch!

For my final card I decided to not only follow a challenge but to also challenge myself while I was at it. I know I have talked in the past about how difficult it is for me to use white in cards, but the only other color that truly gives me fits is yellow. I love when other people use yellow in their cards, but for some reason, I usually hate it when I do. (That is why you rarely see any of my people with blonde hair!) Following today's Sketch Saturday Challenge for the layout, I decided to use some yellow!

I am so proud of this card!! I used tons of yellow in it and even made the little girl a blonde!!! Go me! So I started this card by stamping Cuddling by Rachelle Anne Miller for Stampavie on white card stock and colored them in with my markers and copics. Following the sketch, I used multiple layers of SU! DP and yellow card stock. For the scallops, I used my Fiskars, threaded scallops punch and for the flowers, I used my cricut machine. I added three blue brads to the centers of my flowers to complete the look. When I showed this card to my husband, he said he really like it because it looked so different from what I usually create!! I was so proud.

Well that is it for me tonight!! I hope you all have had a wonderful Saturday and have a great rest of the weekend! Thanks as always for stopping by!