Working on "flat" Christmas cards to mail

I have been a bit of a slacker with my Christmas card schedule this year.  The DVD caused me to lose focus on my monthly Christmas card product schedule for several months in a row.  August became my "catch up" month.  I purchased the Creating Keepsakes kit, which since posting I have found more ways to personalize, and I started making flat cards.  Flat card, you ask?  Last year I was hit with a lot of extra postage due to the dimensional "bumpiness" on my cards.  The USPS does not like the dimensional cards!  So I have been working on attractive yet flat cards for mailing.

Through one of my CHA contacts I picked up two stamps that were designed to fit Nestabilities.  The stamp above used the nesties Christmas candle frame stamp.  I stamped the image in embossing ink, then added three colors of embossing powder to the image, green, gold and deep red.  After heat embossing the image I added three additional stamps in a SU ink - Merry Christmas from Stampin' Up and Peace on Earth and Joy from Technique Tuesday.  I then used my Copic markers and colored in the embossed image.  I like how delicate the image stamped, leaving me lot of room to color.  I also used a SU border punch along the bottom edge of the red matting then covered the layered seam with ribbon.

Inside the card I stamped a SU sentiment, perfect for a Christmas greeting. I also created a pocket for the left inside.  The pocket will hold a photograph and letter that we always include with our Christmas cards. And you will notice that the right side of the card contains lots of space for a hand written note.

Thanks to my friends Kathy (MFK) and Andrea I have a couple of personalized stamps for my cards.  I also have the stamp pictured above that was ordered from eBay, super cheap!  This stamp is a bit more elegant than my other personalized stamps so I thought it would be perfect for the Christmas Card.

I am hoping that the color, design and additional stamps will make up for the lack of dimension on the cards.... It will definitely make the USPS happier.

NOTE:  For those interested in my personalized stamp, this is a link to a seller on eBay:  http://shop.ebay.com/loongchai74/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340