Dear Santa, define "good" . . . Christmas Card 2011

Ahhhh . . . the joys of teenagers, well almost teenagers. My girls sure look and act like teenagers already! And it seems like it came on SO quick! Where did my little girls go that I could dress up, do their hair and buy toys from their Christmas wish list??? Things that they play with now like iPods and laptops are NOT toys!! Yep, my little girls are gone. Now I have these "little women."

Since finding Scrappy Moms Stamps last Spring, I've always loved their Winter Wishes stamp set and knew I had to have it once it got closer to the Christmas season. In particular, their Dear Santa, define "good". . . sentiment just cracked me up. I've always stayed clear of using Santa on my cards (as you can see in my past cards post) because I never wanted to give the impression that he is the focus of my family's Christmas season. One friend used to always say that Santa was Satan with the letters switched around. But now that I am growing in my faith more than ever, I feel confident that I am still keeping Santa in perspective. Sure I love the magic part that Santa adds, but I know Jesus is the reason for the season! BTW, that is another sentiment on that Winter Wishes stamp set from Scrappy Moms. Great set, huh? :)

On to the card:

Front

Scrappy Moms sentiment heat embossed

Inside

Supplies:

• Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge for the buckle
• Stampin' Up Real Red cardstock
• Georgia-Pacific white cardstock
• Black cardstock scraps (belt)
• Coredinations Foundations Golden Pearl cardstock (buckle) purchased as single sheets at Joann
• VersaInk Black ink
• Ranger clear embossing powder
• Marvy Uchida heat embossing gun
• Honey Script font downloaded from www.dafont.com
• Mischievous photos of my girls and family taken by me - photo collage created and printed in matte from www.snapfish.com; family photo printed with a thick border then cut off to make the photo fit the 5.5" x 4.25" card inside.

We had so much fun taking our family photo this year. The Santa hats for the dogs were hysterical!! We just laughed and laughed! Here is a collage of the outtakes that I plan on scrapbooking  . . . someday. (insert heavy sigh here)

This is the first time in 11 years that we didn't take our Christmas photo in front of our tree. But since I wanted to do these Santa hats for the dogs, I thought we needed a more controlled environment to keep hold of them and their hats. I was right about that, but I must say I'm not fond of the way that me and my older daughter's faces look so much bigger than my husband and younger daughter's. I should have set that up a bit differently on the tripod. Oh, well. It was a good photo shoot. And quick, too! I really do think having the dogs trapped on our staircase helped! The poor things. Our black lab is 14.5 years old, too, so she really endured a lot for us. She's such a good girl.

I am entering my Christmas Card 2011 into Fantabulous Cricut's Challenge # 88 "Holiday Cards" and Cricut Cardz Challenge # 96 "Christmas: Say It with S!"  

Ok, enough babble. I have sooo many Christmas crafty projects I want to get to, so hopefully I will be getting to some of them this week. I hope your week is craft-tastic!!