A Charming Country Christmas

Howdy!  I wanted to share a card, (ok, I made a series of cards) I made using the inspirational photo from talented paper crafter that I follow:  LeAnne.  I was surfing the web and saw this beautiful card she created for a (new-to-me) challenge site:  Inspired by All the Little Things.  Their current challenge is this inspirational photo, that is just so gorgeous!  It is such a sweet, traditional christmas photo! and what LeAnne had done with that inspiration, made me head into my craft room and craft!

See what I mean!  how sweet! how traditional! how simply gorgeous!  So, I grabbed some (retired) Stampin' Up! products that are just perfect, and a digital download (from last year, too!) and set-out to make a pretty Christmas card.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I love traditional.  But, I live out in the country, and so I added my own country twist to this great challenge.

Here is what I made:

still trying to work out the bugs with my new photo editing software.
*my card was selected as 'inspiring Stand Out'

Recipe:  I used Riding Hood Red card stock (retired) for the card base.  I just love this faded, vintage color of red.  I took a scrap piece of this beautiful music sheet, from a christmas collection from Stampin' Up! (yeah, retired too).  I just love this paper, so I have hoarded collected a few packages!  *I sponged all the edges of all the papers with crumb cake classic ink.

I sat down at my sewing machine to stitch three layers of trim together:  a burlap/linen piece (from a big box craft store), a strip of cool cucumber dot trim (by Stampin' Up!), and a rustic red gingham ribbon (from the same big box store).  

I printed my mini post card onto white linen card stock by Paper Trey Ink.  I adhered this/these mini post card(s) with foam tape.  I cut the tiny tag(s) out of the vintage cream linen card stock.  I used my Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers stamp set to create the sentiment, and inked the stamp with real red classic ink.  I adhered the tiny tag to the mini post card with one foam dot.  I tied a tiny copper-finish mini pinecone, from Stampin' Up! to the tiny tag with kraft twine by Paper Trey Ink.

Viola!  I made 6 of these cards.  Each card has a different mini post card.  And two of the mini post cards has blue colors, instead of green, so I added mint macaroon dot trim to those cards.  I have a photo on my Facebook page, please take a look.  I'm pretty happy with how they all turned out.  Well, I hope that I have inspired you to play along with this (new-to-me) challenge site!  I am heading back into my craft room, to create a bag with the same supplies!