Mass-produceable Christmas Cards

Yesterday, I showed you a fun *Cocoa for Two*gift packet using Pine's new Warm Happiness stamp set. Thank you for all the nice comments! I can tell Pine's set is going to be HOT!! Today, I'm continuing the the fun with some matching cards and envelopes. Nichole challenged the Papertrey Design Team to create some easy, mass produced holiday cards. Check out her BLOG to find the other designer's links, complete supply lists, card sketches and more! If you've always wanted to get a head start on your holiday cards, NOW is the time! The ideas are plentiful so all you need now are the supplies and a stamping date on your calendar!

I chose to use Pine's new stamp set called Warm Happiness again for my holiday cards. By choosing some fun pastel pinks and greens, I chose a less traditional color combination for my cards. I always like to have a stash of cards on hand at the holidays for quick thank you notes, Christmas cards that I forgot to send, teacher notes, etc. These fun cocoa themed cards with matching envelopes will be perfect! The card design is simple and the cards assemble quickly.

Here's a closeup of an individual card with a matching envelope. I used Papertrey's Spring Moss and Sweet Blush cardstock, Dark Chocolate Palette Ink, Polka Dot Parade paper (coming this month), Sweet Blush Polka Dot Satin Ribbon, white envelopes, Marvy punches and iridescent glitter to create my cards.
As promised in yesterday's post, I want to show you how to do some simple masking to achieve the fun layered look to stamping. I started out by stamping the coffee mugs onto punched white circles, using Palette Dark Chocolate ink.

I then stamped a separate solid polka dot image over the outline image using Papertrey Sweet Blush ink. Papertrey's clear stamps are perfect for this layered stamping.
Next, I created a mask by stamping the outline mug image onto Eclipse Masking Tape. You could also use a sticky note. I placed the mask over my stamped mugs (the mask is white and in place on the bottom stamped image below). Then I stamped the solid oval shadow stamp right over the mask using Papertrey's Spring Moss ink. Voila, a stamped image with lots of layers of colors. Fun, fun stuff here folks!!
I finished off my main images using three separate word sentiments from the Warm Happiness stamp set (warm, winter, and wishes). These images were layered onto a scallop punched Sweet Blush circle and adhered to my card fronts.
I stamped the same mug image onto all of my envelopes, plus I had room to add the steam. I used a sentiment from Papertrey's Snow Play stamp set. Imagine the delight the recipient of these cards will feel.....knowing there's something even better inside the envelope.
Here's a tip for you: When lining up pieces of cardstock, you want them to be straight so your finished cards look professional. Lay your card onto a grid cutting mat, lining the bottom of the card up on a straight, horizontal line. I know that I want the top of my polka dot strip to be adhered 2" from the bottom of the card. So after applying adhesive to the patterned strip of cardstock, I simply line it up right across the 2" line. You may think it's easy to eyeball, but this is such a simple trick that takes out the guess work.

Wanna shake things up a bit? How about we take the very simple design of the cards above and add some glitterfied snowflakes and dressed up buttons?
Then you can have cards that perfectly match the *Cocoa for Two* gift I made for yesterday's post. Who wouldn't love THAT as a little gift?
Check out all the bling bling, and shimmer and beautiful ribbon. It's enough to make you wanna squeal, right? Go ahead if you want to, go cuckoo for cocoa!
The big release is the 15th....along with my wedding anniversary. Are you ready for the Papertrey countdown party and excitement? Be sure to check out Papertrey's chat forum, it's always a fun time!