Mojo Monday #367 Snowhaven Christmas Joy

Whenever I ask my adult children if they heard about this or that on the news, they usually reply, "No, Mom. The news is too depressing." Somehow I remain a news-a-holic, wanting to stay informed. I prefer to know what is happening and to pray for the countries, leaders, situations, victims, and injured.
In a world riddled with trouble, I also find it uplifting to focus on sharing something positive with family and friends. I decided that this week I'm focusing on the joys of Christmas, making cards and layouts. The moment I saw the sketch on Mojo Monday this week, I envisioned using the Snowhaven papers and a new stamp, Merriest Christmas. 

I wanted this card to look fairly basic and "clean." I also wanted it to be 6 1/2" x 5" black card base so I cut the Cranberry background mat 6 1/4" x 4 3/4" and each strip 4" x 1 1/8" and punched two black dotted circles with my 1 1/8" circle punch and cut them in half.  The white strip was 2" x 4 1/2." The really fun part was stamping the sentiment in two colors using my favorite masking technique. I used scotch tape to cover "Joy" while I inked "Christmas" with black. I pulled off the tape and stamped, cleaning the ink off afterwards. Then I taped the word "Christmas" while I inked "joy" with Cranberry ink, pulled off the tape and stamped. The aqua dotted ribbon and the poinsettia are retired CTMH embellishments from a few years ago. I've been sorting and organizing forgotten supplies and I definitely need to use them up!

Thank you for visiting. May God give bless you with peace and joy when life seems troubled. May He bless you as you share your creations with family and friends.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge Extra - anything goes Christmas
My Perfect Life  - anything goes that's Christmas
Crimbo Crackers - #67 - anything goes Christmas
Mojo Monday #367- sketch
The Crafty Blogger's Network - Christmas
Completely Christmas #33 - anything goes with option-poinsettias