Jolly Holiday Sketch Challenge

     Hello!  Today's card was inspired by Sketch Challenge 294 over at Split Coast Stampers.  If you've ever lost your stamping mojo I highly recommend trying a sketch challenge.  I've done a few and I absolutely love them!  The challenges change every Wednesday but you're free to look back at past sketches and complete those - there's no time limit or deadline.

   I was dying to use the new Jolly Holiday DSP (pg. 174, $9.95) and I thought this would be the perfect time to open the package.  The colors are gorgeous and the designs are very much my style and easy to work with (polka dots and stripes).  The card base is 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" and will fit in the medium square envelopes.  Because the base is so large it was impossible to use the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder on the first Old Olive layer, which was my original plan.  Instead, I used the Backgrounds #1 Texturz Plates, leaving the impression not quite as prominant as I had hoped for. 
    If you're thinking to yourself, "Hmmm, did she really use black in her Christmas card?" you're right, I did.  Originally, I was going to use Chocolate Chip as a background color rather than the Basic Black but when I put it all together it just didn't look right.

     I've recently started to decorate the inside of my cards.  Although this takes far less time than the card front I think it adds a classy touch to the finished product. 

Stamps: Delightful Decorations, Occasional Quotes (hostess)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Jolly Holiday DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, StazOn Black
Tools & Accessories: Backgrounds #1, Big Shot, ornament punch, 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals