Hug in a Mug - times six

Needing to catch up with the Christmas card monthly target/total, I played with a NBUS set of MFT dies and stamps - did a batch bake and came up with six quite similar cards:

Just to prove there are six in total :)

I used:

- 4.25" x 5.5" white card blanks, tent style

- then cut blue pearlescent card for a layer on the front  of the cards - three in baby blue and three in dark blue and set them to one side, not added to the cards as yet

- die cut six three mugs, again baby blue and dark blue, using a couple of mug dies from the MFT 'Hug in a Mug' set

- added the surface of the chocolate to the mug using dark beige  snippets and a die from the MFT 'Hug in a Mug' set

- furtled around in the snippets folder and backed some teeny contrasting snippets with Stick-It adhesive sheet

- then die cut little motifs to go onto the front of the mugs. Stitched red heart - MFT's 'Hug in a Mug'. Stocking, snowflake and mittens - Creative Expressions 'Christmas Shadow Box'. Holly leaves and berry - Poppy Stamps 'Stitched Holly Leaves and Berries'. Tree - Impression Obsession 'Evergreen Trees'

- popped the motifs onto the mugs and ran them through the Cuttlebug to press firmly in place (my new found trick!)

- then decided to add whirls of whipped cream on top of the hot chocolate, which almost hides the chocolate but there is a teeny smidgen showing so that step hadn't been pointless after all (die from the MFT set), and tickled the cream with clear Wink of Stella

- die cut circles from Neenah 'Desert Storm' card stock (the best kraft card around I think) with a Tonic Studios circle die

- glued the mugs in place on the circles

- the sentiment comes from a co-ordinating MFT set of stamps called 'Hot Cocoa Cups', stamped onto white card using the Misti and Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink

- then die cut the sentiments using a die from the MFT 'Stitched Fishtail Flag STAX' set and chopped the straight end to fit on the card, using a guillotine

- glued the sentiments onto the blue card front panels and only then glued the panels onto the card blanks

- finally glued the circles onto the card front, above the sentiment

Six more for the box, but I must confess that not all of the cards in that box have inserts in ...... yet. A rainy day job before it gets too out of hand I think!

This is the first time I've used a 'Happy Holiday' sentiment on a card, ever. In the UK we tend to stick to Christmas and/or 'Seasonal' Greetings - so I was a little out of 'ye olde comfort zone'. The warmest wishes bit did it for me - and I think these will be winging their way to dear friends across the pond come Christmas.

I'd like to enter this card (my favourite of the bunch) into two challenges that I love:

Rudolph Days for April, over at ScrappyMo's - anything goes (open until the end of April)

Merry Monday - use kraft card stock (Neenah 'Desert Storm' in my case). This is a pure fluke as I'd already just finished making these cards and was typing this when the Merry Monday challenge popped up! 

Now all that remains is to put all those fiddly little dies back into their storage - without losing any in the process!