Once again I recognized the feel of a Stampin' Up! envelope in the mail yesterday ( I know it sounds crazy, but that's how good Stampin' Up! envelopes are!). I actually gasped when I pulled out this card from my friend Annette because it is SO beautiful! There's that Lovely As a Tree stamp set that I keep telling you about! There is nothing like it! I don't even know exactly how she made this card but I can tell you it is even more gorgeous in person than in this photo! She probably used some masking technique. And of course there is nothing like a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter to add just the right finishing touch!

Annette and I were friends WAY WAY back when when our husbands worked together and when I was first married (and before!). Even though we haven't seen each other in over thirty years since we got transferred to Houston, we have always kept in touch with Christmas cards. So if you have ever wondered if there was any point in sending Christmas cards, even to people you haven't seen in years, this proves it is absolutely a wonderful thing to do to keep in touch! A couple years ago Annette wrote me after Christmas and said she had liked my stamped card and that she had been trying to do some stamping herself. Of course I sent her a Stampin' Up! catalog and we began calling and emailing about stamping. It's been so nice to have a renewed friendship over stamping.  And I feel SURE that someday we are going to get together in person and just have a stamping extravaganza!

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I hope you are having a wonderful Christmas Day with your families and loved ones. I just had to share a few Stampin' Up! Christmas cards I received.

One I knew was from my dear friend who got me started stamping in the first place. She has always had a simple, beautiful style.

We received this card from my husband's cousin who I heard was making cards or maybe doing Stampin' Up!  Well, as I was sorting through the mail that day, I could tell by touch that the envelope was Stampin' Up!  Stampin' Up! has the nicest envelopes! They have a nice smoothness to them and you can stamp on them so well.  Now I'm looking forward to hearing from this cousin again and hear how she got started stamping! (I had to hold the card up so I could get a good photo of the sparkly reindeer!)

And today I received a card from a cousin of my mother's, and again, I thought, "This feels like a Stampin' Up! envelope!"  Well, sure enough, there was a Stampin' Up! card inside, stamped by someone named "Judy" on the back.  She didn't comment in her note how she got the card…maybe it was stamped by a daughter-in-law or grand-daughter or just some other stamper.  But what a surprise to receive a Stampin' Up! card from this lady!

Sure, it's faster to send an email or e-card, but I hope real cards in the mail never die out. I believe it is a real gift to receive any card or note in the mail from someone, but what an extra-special treat to get a handmade card! And that handmade card deserves a Stampin' Up! envelope!

I hope you received lots of Christmas cards from your friends and family! It's one of my favorite parts of Christmas!

If you need a last minute Christmas card or gift tag, I highly recommend using the tree in Lovely As a Tree.  If there is a stamp set you are likely to own, it is this one (and if you don't, I would put it on your after-Christmas list!).  This is a display card from a Stampin' Up! Convention, but I have made a similar card over and over again in all my years of stamping.  Just ink up the tree, stamp it and without re-inking, stamp again to give that lighter image.  Before you know it, you can have a forest of beautiful trees. For some lovely glitz, add some Dazzling Diamonds glitter with the Two-Way Glue Pen, just scribbling, nothing fancy.  You will be amazed at the beautiful card you can make in a minute!

This little Christmas card with Christmas lights on it was fun to make!  I just LOVE Christmas lights!  Unfortunately, the rest of my family does not enjoy driving around oohing and aahing over beautiful Christmas lights.  But I also love to decorate the outside of our house with lights, and this year my husband and our boys put up the lights Thanksgiving weekend.  We also have some "cutouts", as I call them, that my husband cut out with a saw years ago and we painted.  In the daylight now the paint looks pretty bad but at night they are fine.  Then as the air-blown decorations came out we purchased some of those.  The first one, a moose popping out of a package, finally came to an end and we got new ones, our current ones…Santa in the chimney and Snoopy on a plane!  If I had more room, I could be one of those houses that is completely covered in lights and with every square inch of the yard filled with something fun!  Not junky looking but well-planned out!  But we're not there yet, that's for sure!

But on Sunday morning, my husband discovered this sign in our yard! The neighborhood judging was Saturday night and apparently they liked our house!

I was so excited since I am pretty pleased with at least most of our lights and decorations and love seeing the Christmas lights around the neighborhood.  Some houses have REALLY gone all out with the blow-up things and other decorations!  I love it!

To make my Christmas card with the little lights, I just stamped the little light bulb from Merry Minis and punched with the Merry Minis Punch Pack #126882. I placed the bulbs around the card and drew in the green cord with a marker.  The bottom was punched with the Scallop Edge Border Punch so that I could add a strip of Red Glimmer Paper #121790 to the bottom of the inside of the card. If Ihad more time, I would put a little Crystal Effects on each bulb which would make them each look shiny!  Maybe next year!  :)

Don't forget the Clearance Rack Blitz!  I don't know what is left or what will be left when you look…and don't forget to look over the "older" Clearance Rack too!  A good sale is a good sale!  Have fun!