The holidays are rapidly approaching, and at this time in past years I would be wrapping up my cards and getting ready to wrap presents.

Not this year. I started making cards yesterday. Oh, dear.

I let time slip away, and faced with two weeks to craft 50 cards, the glitter is flying now. Last year, I challenged myself with 60 cards, set a Dec. 15 deadline and met it. One year later, I have about 25 cards made for the holidays. I’m halfway there, and thankfully I have a few leftovers from last year. I think I’ll be heavily relying on my Silhouette Portrait.

It seems appropriate to feature a “keep calm” card. I think it’s helping; I’m pretty calm.

“So, you’re doing that, huh?” my husband said when he saw the card.

Since the 1939 British government poster became popular when it was rediscovered in 2000, parodies have flooded the Internet. I bought a holiday-themed “keep calm” stamp set months ago and though it’s cliche, it’s this year or never.

I wanted to stay true to the poster’s original colors of bright red and white. To make the white stamped image pop, I used opaque white embossing powder with white ink. And what would holiday card be without a bit of sparkle? With glitter embossing powder and a bit of glitter paper, this card will “twinkle on,” indeed.

If you’re like me and still have holiday cards to make, keep calm and check in with my blog or my Pinterest boards this week for ideas.

Here’s how to make it:

Cut a 4-inch piece of white cardstock. Stamp a retro background image (such as bead background from the Hipster collection by Hero Arts and Basic Grey) in neon-red ink (mine’s by Hero Arts) onto the white cardstcok, and cover it with red glitter embossing powder (I used Stamp ‘n Stuff powder by Stampednous! in red tinsel). Tap off the excess.

Emboss the powder. Make a card from a 5-by-10-inch piece of bright-red, textured cardstock (I used Bazzill Basics cardstock in berrylicious). Adhere the white piece, centered, to the card’s front.

Cut a 2-by-3-inch piece of bright-red cardstock (Bazzill) and stamp “KEEP CALM and TWINKLE ON” with an image of a string of lights above it (mine are from the Twinkle On set by Technique Tuesday) in white ink (such as ColorBox Cat’s Eye Queue Baby’s Breath collection in frost white) onto this piece. Cover it with white embossing powder (I used American Crafts Zing! powder) and tap off the excess.

Emboss the glitter powder. Cut a 2 1/4-by-3 1/4-inch piece of red glitter cardstock (such as Recollections glitter paper in rouge) and adhere the “keep calm” piece, centered, to it.

Adhere the glitter cardstock, centered, to the card’s front.