Christmas Pursuits Challenge - NOEL Letters

Hey, everyone! Last week I challenged myself to embellish up my NOEL letters. These sit up on my mantle and the general theme for that room is rustic or lodge, so that's the theme I used for my letters. Here they are as I've been using them for a couple of years:

Pretty, but uninspiring, right? Sooooo, I dressed them up with some rustic-like embellishments. For the "N", I used some tea dyed twill, some punched out cedar-looking leaves and a twine tied button. On the "O", I glued some little branches from a tiny artificial Christmas tree, stamped a couple of pine cones from Waltzingmouse's Festive Foliage set, and added another twine tied button. The "E" called for more red so I added a crinkled seam binding bow, some holly leaves from the same set, and some fake red berries. The "L" was a challenge. I ended up tying on a red and cream gingham ribbon, some punched out holly leaves, and a little twine tied button. That didn't seem like enough, so I added some punched out evergreens and some deer--totally keeping with the lodge theme. And here's the finished product:

I don't think this theme lends itself to a ton of embellishments so I kept it to a minimum on each letter. So, what do you think? Better? I think so :)

Thanks so much for stopping by! For next week, I'm challenging myself to dress up another set of letters: MERRY. See a trend? JOY, NOEL, MERRY? Each one has more letters than the last, LOL! Are you getting tired of them yet, LOL? BUT I won't be posting about it that day--I'll have a Flourishes sneak for you instead, so I'm challenging myself right now to get another set, PEACE done before I post again the following week with both sets. How's that? Still something done each week--If I make it ;-) I'll be back tomorrow with a Flourishes card, so I hope to see you back then!

~Supplies~

Stamps: Festive Foliage (Waltzingmouse Stamps)

Paper: Kraft (SU!); Pinefeather (PTI); miscellaneous scrapbook paper

Ink: Soft Suede (SU!); Memento Cottage Ivy

Accessories/tools: twill, ribbon, fake tree limbs, fake berries, buttons, seam binding, twine; punches (Martha Stewart); resin letters (Michaels)