Peace on Earth - Christmas is Coming!

Happy Friday!

Well, it's been an eventful week while we were on vacation! The earthquake really got things "all shook up" here at home. (I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself!) What's really strange is that I felt that shaking all the way down in Myrtle Beach! I was reading on the couch in the condo when all of the sudden, the building started shaking and the walls were moving back and forth. I thought "what the heck?" and yelled at Emma who was upstairs, asking her what in the world she was doing. Isn't it funny how we immediately think our kids are the culprits!? When I realized that even if she was jumping on the bed it didn't recreate the shaking, I thought maybe it was high winds or blasting in the area - who knew?!!
My Mom called and told us about the earthquake -which was centered about 30 miles from her home - and that's when I realized what I'd felt. I think I'm really glad that we weren't here - that little bit of shaking was too weird and I'm not anxious to repeat it anytime soon. Fortunately, our home and my Mom's were just fine, everything safe and secure.

So now we are looking at that hurricane headed up the coast - I'm not getting too excited about it to be honest. Where I live, I'm far enough out of the projected path that it's going to be mostly a rain event, so life is going on as normal. We may take down the cover on our gazebo in case their are some wind gusts, but that's about all I expect here. Kinda like Isabel a few years back. For all my friends and family in the coastal areas though, I'm keeping you in my prayers!

We did have a nice getaway at the beach, although Mark and I have determined that apparently we are not allowed to go away completely. I won't go into it, but our cell phones and e-mail were buzzing with new drama and sadly, it's stuff we couldn't ignore. Sigh. At least the hours we spent on the beach and in the ocean helped to drain away some of the stress. I could honestly sit there all day, listening to the waves and feeling that breeze - what a wonderful thought right now!

It's kinda hard to segue into Christmas while I'm dreaming about the beach, but that's EXACTLY where I'm headed with this post! I have my first Christmas card class of the season tomorrow morning and and it's beginning to look a lot like it in the studio! Here's one of the cards we'll be doing tomorrow:

This card was a last minute addition to our class line up for tomorrow. I'd seen this card HERE by Katherine Elliot on the demo only Stampin' Connection site while we were gone and LOVED how she combined the Merry and Type stamp set with The Open Sea. You know that The Open Sea is retiring in just 6 short days and it's been one of my favorite stamp sets this season. I'm so happy that it works beautifully with this greeting from Merry and Type.
As you can see if you checked out Katherine's card, I used her basic layout, and of course the stamp combo, but I've really kind of done my own thing with this card.

I used Sahara Sand for my neutral, using it for the card base, the top layer and for stamping the globe image. Sahara Sand is a great color and I think it's often overlooked - I know I'm guilty!

The holly image is from one of my favorites from last Christmas - Bells and Boughs. I'm so glad this stamp set made the new Idea Book and Catalog! I did a little happy dance on that one!
Here, I've stamped it in Always Artichoke, just on the top section.
The Peace on Earth greeting from Merry and Type is also in Always Artichoke, stamped on the bottom right corner. You're going to see a lot of that stamp set this upcoming season, just sayin'!

Here's a close up of the layers:

I used Cherry Cobbler cardstock under the Sahara Sand layer and a little sneak peek of the new Quilted Cherry Cobbler ribbon that's coming up in the Holiday Mini on September 1st! You're going to love that ribbon - it's just fabulous!
Those layers were popped up on Stampin' Dimensionals and adhered to the card front.

I used my 2 1/2" Circle Punch for the Always Artichoke cardstock circle, then stamped my globe image from The Open Sea with Cherry Cobbler on Sahara Sand cardstock. Instead of cutting it out, I chose to tear around it, giving it a little texture against the clean cut layers.

So, there you have it - a pretty clean and simple Christmas Card. Just the thing to get us started this year. Don't you wish you were coming to class tomorrow? I've got 16 ladies coming to stamp with me and that makes my heart happy! I'll show you some of the other 5 cards we are making over the coming days, so at least you can see how to recreate them at home.

Here's a few of the products I used to make today's card:#122552 - Merry and Type Stamp Set $18.95 clear-mount

#123032 - The Open Sea Stamp Set $18.95 clear-mount
(retiring in 6 DAYS!)

#121142 - Bells and Boughs Stamp Set $14.95 clear-mount

#120906 - 2 1/2" Circle Punch $16.95

All of these products and more can be ordered in my Online Stampin' Store, 24/7!
Thanks so much for stopping by today - have a great weekend wherever you are, and be safe if you are in one of the storm areas!

Stamped blessings,
~~Robin

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