Love Knots, Hugs and St. Nicholas

It's my day to share over at The Alley Way Stamps and I thought it would be fun to use the new stamp Love Knots for the challenge over at CASual Fridays: Knotty or Nice!  I love this "knotty" heart!

I had envisioned the look of an aspen tree - a white bark - and when I saw the colors at The Paper Players - I knew it would be really sweet to keep it subtle with pops of color.  I also used the sketch from Unscripted Sketches.

This week's challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges inspired me to create another Christmas card.  The challenge was to use our favorite holiday stamp.  I'm not going to say for sure that the stamp on this next card is my very favorite stamp...but I liked it so much that when it was released last month by The Alley Way Stamps - even though I am on the design team, I couldn't bring myself to use it because I was afraid I wouldn't do it justice.  I spent yesterday at a Christmas parade, then at a Christmas concert with a full orchestra and 300 choir members.  I woke up this morning to snow.  If I can't do this stamp justice right now in my joyful Christmas mood, I'll never do it justice...

I used the sketch from The Sweet Stop and I am also going to add this for the current challenge at Christmas Cards All Year Round: Santa.

Love Knots and Huts

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Love Knots, Jibber Jabber ("hugs"), Trees Company (bird)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Pool Party
• Ink: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Versmark, Memento Espresso Truffle, copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler twine, EK Success border punch, white embossing powder

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Jolly Holiday
• Paper: Stampin' Up Real Red, Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, Simple Stories Handmade Holiday Winter Wonderland (the brown with snowflakes), MME Winter Wonderland (the stripes)
• Ink: Memento Espresso Truffle, copics
• Accessories: ribbon from Joann, Echo Park Christmas This & That brads, white felt (on cuffs), Gold Spica (on candles)