Christmas Joy :)

Happy Monday, my dear friends! I know many of you are in Hurricane Sandy's path.. you have been and will continue to be in my prayers. **extra hugs**

I used my crafty time this weekend for the upcoming I Feel the Love Project collection. With a hunch that it'll be Christmas cards for kiddos in unfortunate situations, and my crafty time not what it once was, I wanted to get a bit of a head start. There's nothing more rewarding than using our passion to bless others, so I want to get my Christmas stash started for those sweet kiddos. It would break my heart to run out of time.

When creating for I Feel the Love, my heart is divided between happy-fluttery and panicky. I get myself so nervous, wanting everything to be just so! At the same time, it's when I have the most fun. :o) For my first Christmas surprise for a child in need of some extra love this season, I had it on my heart to create a festive scene.

With such a special recipient, I wanted to add something extra fun. I'm thrilled to finally own the Cricut Noel cartridge, so I was eager to use it. I chose the beautiful window, backed it with a reindeer scene from a K and Company paper, filled it in with Glossy Accents for realism, and added shimmery microbeads to the corners for frostiness. I hope the sweet kiddo likes it. :o)

This card was built around the precious Elisabeth Bell stamp, titled Star of Bethlehem. I colored the children in Copic golds and reds, adding Star Dust, Christmas Red, and Gold Stickles at various points. I dabbed Star Dust down the gold dress, as if she's leaving a trail of sparkles wherever she goes. :o) I originally was going to have them approaching a die-cut tree, but it wasn't working out as planned. I was so thankful to have this gorgeous Best Creation Merry Christmas paper to salvage the theme. The tree is beautiful and very sparkly in person. There are also sparkling flourishes throughout the entire sheet. :o)

The gift may seem disproportionate in size, but this is for I Feel the Love... I totally want to give them a life-size Christmas present! :o) I added buttons to the Art Philosophy gift for textural detail and sparklified the ribbon. I like to think it's ready to explode with sparkling love. Or maybe it's dusted with shimmery snow because Santa just delivered it. :o)

Lastly, I made a banner to help deliver the message of Christmas joy. :o) The cut is from Art Philosophy and I used golden paper with musical scores.. the heavenly angels are singing! The "joy" stamp is from CTMH Art Philosophy collection, which I heat-embossed in gold for shininess and a bit of dimension. The banner is 'secured' with rhinestones and Christmas twine. :o) I hope this little card delivers tangible hugs and love to its future recipient. I squeezed in as much sappy, sparkly, festive love as possible. :o)

Challenges entered:
 *Christmas Crafting~ Buttons and Twine
 *Crafty Ann's~ Christmas in October
 *Crafty Ribbons~ Christmas
 *Elphine House Australia~ Buttons and Bows
 *Inspire Me Fridays~ Anything Goes
 *Make It Monday~ Anything Goes
 *Paper Playtime~ Anything Goes
 *Sparkles Christmas Challenge~ Traditional
 *Stampin' for the Weekend~ Anything Goes
 *Word Art Wednesday~ Encouraging/Uplifting

Thank you for twirling on by! I wish you a sparkling day of blessings. :o)