First Christmas card

I know, I know - it's only July....... but we had a bit of a challenge going on, over on our forum. I challenged everyone to use a virgin stamp - one that had been bought (the longer ago the better!) but never used. I have quite a few stamps which fall into that catgory so it was a difficult choice :-) In the end I went for this Christmas holly frame, bought at Ally Pally in April from a bargain bin.

I stamped and embossed in gold, then distress inked the background with Antique Linen and Tea Dye. The leaves and berries were coloured with marvy pens. The sentiment may also be a virgin stamp - I can't remember whether I put it on any cards last year - it's stamped onto some swirly paper (Craft creations?), die-cut with nestie labels 4 and mounted onto a mat cut with the new labels 4 'small'. The whole thing was then matted onto some red card and attached to a pearlescent card blank. I kept it flat, no foam padded dimension, so it will post easily! A few pearls and a sentiment stamp to finish off.

I think I will be mkaing a few of these!