Because Christmas birthdays need special cards

In recent years I have met so many friends with Christmas-time birthdays, and so far I am the only one who actually LIKES having a Christmas birthday!  Everyone I know says they hated it growing up because their birthday always got lost in the shuffle of Christmas activities.

I, on the other hand, was blessed with parents who went out of their way to make my birthday special like all my siblings.  We always had birthday cake and presents on Christmas night, so even though I never had a birthday party, I did not miss it!  Even now that I am ?? years old and birthdays get lost in the shuffle for a different reason, I still look forward every year to celebrating my birthday with Jesus' celebration!

That being said, now that I am making greeting cards, I have made a special effort to have something special about each December birthday for which I make a card, hence the title "Because Christmas birthdays need special cards."

I can't seem to get into the habit of photographing every card I make, but I have managed to remember to do this for several of the birthday cards I have made for friends this year.  My goal was to blend a tiny little bit of wintery, Christmasy look into flowery, glittery cards.  So here goes...

First up, snowflakes in the background with a big flower backed by various colored metallic papers.

 It is pretty difficult to get a photo of the metallic paper without that flash of light in the center, so here is another view of it:

The second card also has some snowflakes in the background, but again I used flowers and butterflies for the focal point and I really like how it turned out:

Cheer and Joy stamps

I have a new all-time favorite set of stamps that I've been using this year for Christmas cards.  I have been "captured" by one in particular from the set.  I liked it so much I almost could not stop making cards with it! 

These two cards are samples of what I have done with the "Merry" surrounded by ivy and holly.  Different background papers make a huge difference in the looks of the stamp, as does how I stamp it.  On the red and gold background card I embossed the stamp with gold embossing powder.  I also mounted the message on metallic gold card stock which added to the elegance of the card, I think. The green background was stamped with black.  To be quite honest, I can't decide which one I like better!

Let me show you and you can decide for yourself!

Christmas in pastels

I got a new Papercrafting magazine and it included a free gift of a set of Christmas stamps and some beautiful foiled pastel Christmas papers so I made these three cards with some of it:

The stamps are very nice and the sentiments are equally sweet and more meaningful than some I've seen.  The inside sentiment, which I have not photographed, says "Peace & Joy at Christmas."

Here are close-ups of the three cards:

 The stamp set also included an embossing folder of stars and swirls, which you can see behind the word block on the dove card.

Christmas card time!

Been working on Christmas cards, finally!  And although I do not like to do the same thing over and over, I have found that I'm OK with that as long as I can use different papers for each one, so That is what I've been doing.  I've been making two different designs and it is working well for me.  AND I've been able to use up numerous scraps that were "too big to throw away and too small to keep" in the process.
Here is the first design, using my new three wise men stamp set from Stampin' Up, which I really like:

The other design uses three panels of decorated paper on top of a background of shiny or glittery paper.  Once I figured out the dimensions I needed to use, it goes quickly and I think the effect is maximum.