How to Spread a Little Christmas Joy This Year

Want to spread a little Joy this year?  There is nothing like getting the entire family in on the action!

Even though I get to make hand made cards almost every day of the year, it is an entirely different experience when my family joins in on creating the cards.  Does Matt stamp?  As soon as I quit laughing, I will answer……  No, he doesn't.  He is standing right here, and I wish I could truly put the eyeroll he just gave me into words.  But he loves tools – and that puts him in charge of die cutting.  The 7 year old is a master at stamping, but also has a thing for ribbon.

I would say that it leaves me with the boring job of cutting and scoring card stock, but in all honesty, I don't care about doing it if I am spending a day with them.  Each of our cards has a touch of each of us inside.  (One year there was also a drop of blood, truly proving that 1. part of us was in it, 2. they were handmade, 3. hubby is great at die cutting – not so much when it comes to scissor work.)

Back to Making the Card:

So how do we work it?  There is the bidding that takes place first – see, we haven't finalized our cards to create and send out yet.  Normally we have done this by now, but not so much this year.  There will be about 5-7 to pick from and then we start narrowing it down.  Here is one of the contenders:

Want to know how it is decided?

The hubby picks the easiest looking card.

The 7 year old little girl picks the most sparkly card.

And then I usually pick from those two, which means the sparkly card wins!

In case you are wondering, Pixie (the cat) doesn't get a vote, and neither does Jingly (the Elf on the Shelf).  Even though Emily tries to get “their” vote to count.

In one day, we can have Christmas music playing, hot chocolate on the stove, card stock everywhere as we create Joy in our home and the cards we send out.

Here is a list of supplies and links to my online store so you can grab them up in time to make your cards:

• Christmas Tagables Photopolymer Stamp Set
• Christmas Messages Wood-Mount Stamp Set
• Christmas Messages Clear-Mount Stamp Set
• Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad
• Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad
• Whisper White 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Old Olive 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Season Of Style Designer Series Paper Stack
• Polka Dot Parade Designer Series Paper
• Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
• Circles Collection Framelits Dies
• 1 Inch Circle Punch
• Bitty Banners Framelits Die
• Baked Brown Sugar 3/8″ Ruffle Stretch Trim

How about you?  Are you planning on sending out a little homemade Joy this Christmas?

I will be posting the winning card in Stamping Family!  If you are not a member, you should check it out.  There is more than just card making and scrapbooking taking place in there, Linda just shared some awesome holiday recipes in there.  Yummmm….