Elegant Joy - A WOW Card

Well stampers, I survived WOW! weekend. And so did my stampers here in the studio.
Apparently there was enough chocolate and coffee and apple cake and brownies to keep them going through all the WOW! projects. No one collapsed, no one had an adhesive emergency and no one lost a finger or their mind. Everyone left with 10 extra-ordinary Christmas Cards!
You know, the kind you'd pay $7 and up for at the big box store or that fancy card shop. Yep, that kind.

I was in that big RED spot store the other day and they have their Christmas cards out already so I decided to take a gander.
They are carrying a pretty well known, upscale brand of cards, all individually wrapped up and they are selling for $7 each. They have one printed layer, one popped up piece on the front and maybe a little glitter somewhere.
It just kills me to think that some poor souls are paying that kind of money for something so cheesily made, especially because they have a big name printed on the back. They could be making something like this instead:

Who can resist the combination of Shimmery White cardstock, Brushed Gold cardstock and Concord Crush cardstock? Add in some awesome Gold embossing, hand cut embellishments and sparkly rhinestone jewels and you've got something really special.

And the best part - it's handmade from the heart. You can never go wrong with that now can you?

This card was one of the favorites from the two WOW! classes this past weekend, and it's one of my favorites too. It's hard to make an ugly card with this stamp set - The Sounding Joy. It's in the Holiday Mini, so don't wait to own it if you love it too. It may not be around next Christmas.

Instead of stamping and embossing the large greeting directly on top of the stamped star, I opted to stamp and emboss it on a separate piece of Shimmery White cardstock, then cut it out with my Paper Snips. More time consuming, sure, but the look is fabulous! What do you think?

The three rhinestones at the bottom right corner add just the right amount of bling to this card. Plus I love the use of three of them on this card that represents the true meaning of Christmas. They could stand for the Trinity or for the three gifts of the Wise Men.

This card is a 4 1/4" square card and the layers are all cut at 1/4" smaller increments. There are 12 Stampin' Dimensionals on this baby, but the lifted layers just add to the elegant feel.

Several of my weekend stampers chose to make this card THEIR card for this year and ordered all the supplies they needed to make their own.
Here are a few of the things we used so you can order them and make it YOUR card too:

#121979 - The Sounding Joy stamp set $18.95 Clear Mount

#109129 - Gold Embossing Powder $4.75

#119785 - Concord Crush Classic Ink Pad $5.95

#102283 - Versamark Ink Pad $7.50

You'll also need Shimmery White Cardstock, Brushed Gold Cardstock, Concord Crush Cardstock, Stampin' Dimensionals, a Heat Tool and SNAIL adhesive. Don't forget your envelopes either!
My Online Stampin' Store is open 24/7 for your convenience, so just pop over there to place your order and you can be working on your Christmas cards next week!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!
Back tomorrow with another design from my WOW! classes!

Blessings,
~~Robin

Place your order for Stampin' Up! Supplies at this link here: Robin's Online Stampin' Store.
Simply click the SHOP NOW button at the top right of the page.