Christmas Card Challenge

It's never too early to start making Christmas Cards.  The Christmas Card Challenge blog challenges us to make a Christmas card a week all year long.  By the time December rolls around you will have enough Christmas cards made to mail to friends and family.  This week's challenge is a photo challenge but it is not mandatory to take part in the challenge.  The real challenge is just to make a Christmas card.  I got crafty this morning and made 2 cards.  I made a gift card holder following the photo challenge and also a Christmas card.

Here is the photo inspiration:

Here is the gift card holder I made using the photo as inspiration:

I used kraft card stock for the base, belly band and coffee cup.  The design paper is from a 6 x 6 paper pad by Carta Bella - Christmas Delivery.  The image, sentiment and die cuts are by Hero Arts - Coffee cup frame cuts.  The instructions for the gift card holder can be found here:  https://istampedthat.com/2012/11/18/super-easy-gift-card-holders/.  The gift card holder will have a Starbucks gift card tucked inside for my daughter for Christmas.  She loves Starbucks! 

I was inspired by a card that I saw on Pinterest to create my Christmas card:

The image is by Stampin' Up - Snow Swirled which I heat embossed using Stampendous Detail Gold embossing powder.  I added some tiny rhinestones from Couture Creations to decorate the tree.  The card stock base is by Bazzill - French Vanilla and the gold card stock I bought at Michaels.  I will be finding it very hard to part with this card as I really love how well it turned out!

Thanks for stopping by!