Welcome back to the monthly shindig of the Squirrel Squad! For those new here, my little group (just 6 of us) create projects using items in our stash that we have squirreled away and not used, or at least not in a long while. Each month we have a prompt that includes a theme and either a technique or supply that needs to be used in our project. For November, our theme is Holidays and our must use supply is Vellum. There are so many ways to combine these 2 ideas, so I’m sure the Squirrels will have a bunch of great projects to show you! Since there is just a few of us it won’t take much time to hop along and see all the amazing ways to add vellum to your holiday cards! Here is the short hop list in case you get lost:

• Marie Bingaman
• Lounon Riviere
• Anna Mahtani
• V Fairchild
• Karen Page – YOU ARE HERE
• Bory Yankova

I made multiple cards and *still* had more ideas that I just didn’t have time to explore. I have many holiday products, but I opted to just use stamps from my favorite stamp company, Jane’s Doodles. Now, let me share a little something about Jane. I happened to be the winner of a blog prize a few months ago, but due to health issues this year with multiple family members, I hadn’t promptly claimed my prize. She was SO sweet, she not only honored the prize weeks later but sent me the sweetest care package along with it, and the kindest note wishing my whole family the best and a full recovery! Jane’s Doodles has some of the cutest critter images and beautiful floral sets, and at reasonable prices. And on top of that, the owner is amazingly kind. In a time when the world still seems to be falling apart, its so unbelievable to find a company owner that cares about its customers like this! OK, this fan girl will get on with the post now. 😉 Let’s get a look at my first card:

I am crazy about poinsettias at Christmas time, and especially poinsettia stamp sets. This card uses images from the Jane’s Doodles set Winter Florals, which I bought ages ago and haven’t had a chance to use. The images were heat embossed in white on vellum and then fussy cut. For the panel, I started with a blue cardstock and used Distress Oxide inks to darken the edge and create a vignette. The sentiment is from another Jane’s Doodles set called Merry Christmas, also never used before, which was heat embossed directly on the panel. I added some white embossed snow splatters in the background and added some Pink & Main mirrored enameled dots that have been discontinued I’ve had them so long! The images are glued flat to the card and the adhesive hidden behind the embossing. I just love how this came out! Now, this next card almost didn’t make this post:

When I finished this card I was so happy with it… *until* I realized I had forgotten to include vellum! 🤦‍♀️ Yes, its true… the images and sentiment from Jane’s Doodles Deck the Halls set were all stamped and heat embossed in gold directly on the card panel. I guess that’s what happens when you just get lost in playing with paper! When I mentioned to some of the Squirrel Sisters what I had done, Anna quickly suggested that there must be a way to add vellum after the fact. I slept on it and then came up with this… the middle ornament has been stamped on vellum with the same gold embossing powder, then alternating stripes were colored with a Marvy gold paint marker, and the adhesive was hidden behind the colored parts. And just like that, my favorite card of the bunch made the post! My next card is more CAS:

Now at first glance you might think the poinsettia is the same as on my first card. However, this one is from yet another hoarded JD set called Christmas Blessings. (I told you I have a thing with poinsettia stamps!) The image is again stamped and heat embossed on vellum, but then I inked the image with Oxide inks on the back of the vellum for a soft colored effect on the front. The sentiment from the same set was heat embossed direct on the panel, and the whole thing was matted with gold foil paper from Rinea. I added some bling from a company called Forever in Time that has been in my stash since… well, forever in time! LOL!!! 🤣 OK, last one:

I used another Jane’s Doodles set called Holiday Sweets for a completely different way to incorporate vellum. After stamping and coloring the images with Prismacolors on the card panel, I cut a fishtail banner from vellum as an overlay. It wraps over the top of the panel and is also secured with decorative ribbon. I stamped off another image and the coordinating sentiment and added them, as well as some candy like epoxy dots to the banner to finish it off. I swear I worked longer on the bow than the stamping and coloring combined! 😄 I remember now why I don’t use ribbon more often!

That’s it for me, but the fun continues on the hop… head on over to the blog of my sweet friend, Bory Yankova, who has no doubt found a glorious way to use vellum on her card! I always love to see Bory’s take on the monthly prompts! In fact, all the Squirrels amaze me with their creativity and talent!!! Thanks for stopping by!