Paper Players #102, Retrosketches #18 & Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge

Happy Tuesday friends!  If you've popped into my blog tonight and said "hmmm... another Christmas card..." then you are not alone.  My daughter said "I really, really like this Mama but what's up with all the Christmas cards lately?  Aren't you going to make any other kinds any more?"  I do seem to be making a lot of Christmas cards lately and not so many of the other kinds - but here's the thing...I've discovered that I LOVE to make Christmas cards - LOL.  By the time Christmas gets here I will be done with the cards and can concentrate on the other fun things of the holiday - like baking cookies.  Oh, and of course, there were three great challenges that I wanted to participate in today of which 2 are specific to Christmas themes so how could I resist?!  Not to worry though, I am working on a few non-Christmas creations too which I will be sharing with you soon.  But for now, thanks for visiting and I sure hope you like this card that I am entering into the following challenges:

The Paper Players #102 - "Christmas in July" theme

Retrosketches #18 (see below)

and
Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - Acrostic Christmas Challenge

The idea behind the Acrostic Christmas Challenge is to use at least two different letters from the word ‘CHRISTMAS’ to create a project.  My card uses the letters C for Cookies, H for holiday, R for red and ribbon, and S for Sweet.  Too bad there is not a Y in Christmas cause I would say YUMMY  (I love cookies - they are my favorite treat) :o)

This card uses a mix of old and new products.  The darling gingerbread cookies are actually cardstock stickers that I've had in my Christmas stuff "stash" waiting for me to make a scrapbook page.  They no longer had any stick to them so I used my trusty tombow adhesive and viola! The white ric rac ribbon is also from that same stash of Christmas stuff :o) The blog post from Ann at Paper Players reminded me that I still have some of rub-ons from a past Stampin Up! purchase (actually I have a lot of them) and was delighted to find the perfect saying to go with my card - whoo hoo! Unfortunately these rub-ons are quite old and they didn't go on as smoothly as I would have liked :o(  Note to self - "use your stuff - don't just hoard it!" 

I made the cookie sheet with brushed silver cardstock.  My card base is Crumb Cake cardstock and I ran the Poppy Parade cardstock strip through the Adorning Accents embossing folder (hearts).

I am pleased with how this card turned out - making Christmas cookies is a favorite tradition for me and my kids so it has a special meaning to me as well.  We make the frosted cut-out sugar cookies and gingerbread people.  We give each family member their own specially decorated cookie.  I know that Christmas has arrived when we start making those cookies. 

Til next time - Hugs!