Christmas Preview: Joy to the World

I don't know about you, but I just can't get enough of this Christmas stuff! Sure, I get just as mad as the next person about the retailers shoving Christmas down our throats before it's even Halloween. But there's something different about creating handmade items that you know will be sent to friends and neighbors far and wide and filled with love and family pride!

Today, I bring you a new design with one of my favorite Christmas stamps. And when I saw this card by Susan Raihala over at her blog Simplicity, I just knew I had to try it for myself. I loved the effect of tracing the line in the sand with the scissors to really give the effect of the wisemen shuffling through the dessert sands on their way to find the King. Couple that with the genius use of white space and you have a combination that equals perfection, IMHO. We opted to allow the scene to take center stage, but to keep the sentiment from disappearing altogether, we embossed it in gold for just a bit of dimension and sparkle.

All of our Christmas products are available for immediate order. This card is available in packs of 10 for $30, or you may purchase any design individually for $5 each (prices excluding shipping).

Keep stopping in - we have plenty more to share!

Christmas Preview: Let Earth Receive Her King

Good day, everyone! The holidays are in full swing here at HNI. Whitney and I sit around listening to Christmas music on Pandora while we work. I *heart* Christmas music, especially the classics. I really could listen to it all year. But I digress. On to today's reveal!

We've invested in some new stamp sets this year, and we absolutely fell in love with The Sounding Joy set from SU!. So many possibilities with this set. For this card, we chose to layer the beautiful star (lyrics from "Joy to the World") with the gorgeous sentiment "Let earth receive her King." And what better way to reinforce our royal theme than with a royal color scheme. To make the sentiment really pop, we chose to emboss it and then pop up the panel. The kraft base reminds me of the stable - absolutely fitting, don't you think?!

We're really loving all of the designs that we're creating this year, and we hope you do too. Remember, all of our Christmas preview items are available for order RIGHT NOW. Each card design is available in packs of 10 for $30 or you can purchase individual card designs for $5 each (shipping excluded).

We have LOTS more to share with you, so stop by tomorrow.

Christmas Preview: Twinkling Trees

Hello, everyone! I hope your week is going well. Today, I'm super-excited to bring you a preview of one of the cards in our 2011 Christmas Collection - Twinkling Trees.

We were really late in introducing our 2010 line, so we felt that a few of our designs didn't get enough love. This lovely card is a perfect example. While the design is recognizable from last year, you may notice that we've spruced it up a bit to give it some more punch.

I love the simplicity of the design - a little sparkly embossing powder, the perfect stamps, and *voila* Sometimes you don't have to have a lot of bells and whistles to exact the perfect amount of holiday cheer! All of our designs are available for immediate order. Each set of 10 is $30 or you can purchase an individual card for $5 each (shipping not included). What a cheerful bargain!

We hope you like what you've seen so far. We have more exciting reveals on the way!

Congratulations

Good Monday to all! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. We've been busy here at HNI. Our Holiday Sweat Shoppe is going full throttle and we couldn't be more excited.

Today, though, I have a different reason to celebrate. Recently, some dear friends of mine got married, and no gift would be complete without a handmade card to express best wishes, right?! In making this special card, I took this design a step further by incorporating the bride's colors and a portion of the wedding invitation. And I found this Viva la Verve challenge perfect for the layout - a perfect balance of all of the elements I wanted to include. I used some Glimmer Mist to mute the white flowers and to change the color of my eyelet ribbon so that both would better coordinate with the other papers I had selected.

When all was said and done, I really loved the look and I especially loved the personal touches that let the new couple know that this card was made especially for them on their special day.

Thanks for stopping in today. We have some VERY exciting holiday reveals coming up this week; so be sure you pop back in!

Sitting Next to You

Good Tuesday, everyone! I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend as much as we did. The weather finally cooled off and it turned out to be the most wonderful weekend to be outside. And so I spent the majority of it out in my new outdoor kitchen/entertaining space!

Unfortunately, because I was so interested in lounging around outside, I wasn't paying very good attention to the challenge deadline calendar for this wonderful creation. But I shall give props to the inspiration challenges anyway.

Last week, Whitney told you about a client of ours who asked for pet sympathy cards. This particular client runs a boutique catering to pet owners and she hasn't been able to find "good" pet sympathy cards. In my own experience, I know exactly what she's talking about! So I've always made my own. And now we'll be providing some of our personal designs to others for those times when you need to express condolences to friends on the loss of their furry loved ones.

This card was made with cat owners in mind. I don't know if your sweet kitties are anything like mine, but they are definitely lap companions. And my furry felines always bring to mind the phrase "Sitting next to you is my favorite thing to do." I believe this sentiment goes both ways.

Our design was inspired by this Sweet Stop Sketch. It was perfect for creating our little living room scene. And what better to make the scene more realistic than a little felt! The gals over at Moxie Fab challenged us to use felt and we knew it would work perfectly in this design. We popped it up to give the scene a little more depth and dimension. The muted color scheme really draws your eye to the couch where the kitty sits.

When all finished, we really loved how this one turned out. Hope you do too!