When is a Christmas card, not a Christmas card? When you take elements traditionally used for Christmas, and turn them into something else completely. I decided for this particular swap, that I would make my 5 cards with my new stocking builder punch, and the coordinating stamp set - instead of what I'd normally do by making 5 completely different cards with different supplies. 
I wanted to show the versatility of this dynamic duo and make some "all occasion" cards with it.
As you can see here, my first card was a wedding card - I've stamped "Mr." and "Mrs." on the cuff of the stocking, and congratulations on the bottom - of course I couldn't resist adding just a little bit of bling. :)
For the second card I made a single stocking, and used the sentiment "Cheers way to go!". The embellishments are simple in that I used coordinating baker's twine around the stocking, and used one of my favorite Sizzix Embossing folders.
My thought on this one was one of a parent of a new baby adding another stocking around the tree and I took a bit of a cheeky approach to it. (But that's just me :) )
For the third card, I made a pair of melon mambo socks, and tied them with ribbon, and used the sentiment Happy Father's Day. I ticket punched the corners, popped up the stockings, but otherwise kept it simple.
I have really been enjoying my Sizzix embossing folders, so it's not surprise that for my 4th card I went back to the Embossing folders and used the striped one for my background. This time I used my favorite - Rich Razzleberry for the socks and used the caption "Welcome Baby" one our In Color paper to create a cute baby card, adding just a little bit of bling to the scallop tag at the bottom.I hadn't anticipated how well the rich razzleberry would stand out on the pool party background - I will definitely use this combination again!
Last but not least, I made a Christmas card because I just couldn't see using the stocking punch and NOT making a Christmas card.
I did one stocking in Real Red, and one in Old Olive, and used our new Sizzix Embossing Template from the holiday mini to "quilt" the tops of the stockings before adding a little bling. I have a friend and colleague who has often been teased about her love of pop-dots and always wanting to pop things up; lately I find myself looking for ways to add just a little bling or pizazz as it were to my cards.
I'm also finding myself gravitating towards my ticket punch for my card corners a lot lately.
I sponge stamped around the tag, and opted to leave the bling to the stockings and not the tag.
So.. there you have it.. my 5 entries to our team swap! I hope you got a little inspiration from them to use in your upcoming projects :)I haven't yet received the rest of the cards back but I will certainly share a selection of those when they arrive back home.
If you'd like to play with the stocking punch and stamp set drop me a message and we'll set something up.
It's not too early to book a Christmas card workshop for you and your friends! Call me or
e-mail me to secure your date.
