Jingle Belles - A Banner Holiday

Well, here we are again at the end of the Jingle Belle challenges for the year.  That is not to say that I am done with my Christmas cards, although I should be if I had kept to the challenge schedule.  I have a few more to do, but they'll wait until I've posted my card honoring the beautiful blog banner that hostess Lauren created (click here for details).  

  

I gathered up some possible supplies including a Holiday Floral stamp and die set from Reverse Confetti, a company which sadly went out of business last month.  Luckily I found some cards on Pinterest that helped me with the color pallet.  The Santa I chose is a new Unity stamp I hadn't used yet, and the sentiment die is a mystery to me as far as where it came from.  The background music paper is from a prize I won last year on the JB blog.

Sometime between Friday and yesterday morning I stamped, die cut, and colored all the pieces for two cards plus more of the foliage.  I wasn't sure how much I would be using for this design and also figured since I was taking the time to color, I might as well do a bit more to have on hand for those cards that I still need.  Between Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies keeping me company I just kept coloring away.  I was doing the coloring at the dining room table so HWNSNBP could get into the storage area adjacent to the craft room and pull out the Christmas decorations.  I thought it best to stay out of his way.  He usually manages to hit his head at least a couple of times going in and out and he's never, how shall I say.... unreactive when that happens. 

When he was done I went back up there to start putting things together and discovered that one of the sockets in the outlet that I use for my table lights wasn't working which was odd because it worked the day before.  When I told HWNSNBP, even though the other socket in the outlet was working, he went to the basement to check the breakers and they were all good.  So I switched things up in the power strip and got the light that I needed but it was a mystery that would have to be solved soon. It turned out it needed solving even sooner because when I went to turn on the tv that was in another outlet in the room it did not turn on.  I don't need the tv, but two outlets with problems was not good. Neither one of us relished the thought of having an electrician have to come in to figure this out because that would mean having to clear out the area next to these two outlets (or more).  As he stood there in the doorway shaking his head, he noticed the wall switch and asked if it was supposed to be up or down.  I told him I didn't know because I don't use it.  There's no overhead light in the room and I turn on my lights individually.  But he decided to try the switch and lo and behold, the tv came on and he insisted that I, who work in that room all the time must have tried to turn the lights on with the wall switch, not he, who had just been going into the storage area.  Did I mention that he usually hits his head a couple of times?  I'm going to put a piece of tape over the switch so this doesn't happen again.  And maybe I'll suggest that he wear a hard hat when he goes in the storage area again. 

I had a couple of other dies on my table that I had quickly cut out and put these two cards together rather simply.  I don't remember where I saw it, but I liked the way another card maker had posed those Dala horses together and wanted to do something similar.

Well, it's time to head over to the Jingle Belles blog to check out some of the other creations.  Lauren and Steph have outdone themselves with their examples which you can see by clicking here and here.  I'm so thankful for their weekly inspiration and all the work that they put into the upkeep of the Jingle Belle community!