Christmas Cards 2010

My Christmas cards are done! All I need to do is add a picture and address the envelopes.

Here is a random sample of the basic cards. I know that it is very time efficient to make them all the same, but I have never been able to stick to one single design.

My cards are long and I used scraps from previous years card adventures to decorate the right edge of each card. A photo will cover the left-hand side. I think I will use a black and white photo so that it won't clash with my various color schemes.
 

Here is one of my favorites. So simple.

Most of the papers and stamps are (C) Close to My Heart. ;-)

The weather is finally cooler here...I can't believe what a hot, hot summer it was. The chillier air is so comforting and nice. I love jackets and hoodies.

I can't wait for Christmas!

Photo Essay: {Christmas Cards} the process....

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I spent the entire morning preparing my Christmas cards to be sent out. Creating the cards is an entire process, and mailing the cards adds many additional steps to that process.
It is a labor intensive endeavor, but I think it is important.
Special.
Oh-so-very-me.
I thought it would be fun to photograph the process this year.
Reflect.
Provide details.
Record.
You can pretend you are watching an episode of 'how it is made'. :-)
Enjoy!

I like to use some kits and some of my own designs. I love to make each card a little different! After making the cards, I try to take a picture of each one.

I like to choose a silly photo from earlier in the year and I always have wallets made so that I can include it in my card. Sometimes I use a school picture.

I keep a book with all my addresses and the cards from the previous two years. I love looking back at the messages from my family and the pictures that they sent. The cards and photos are on display the entire month of December, but I hide them away in this book once the month is over, so that I can remember who sent what last year.

I write all of the addresses in pencil so that I can make changes. The book is filled with little scraps of paper that I try to update once a year so that I can have current addresses for my family. On the edge of the paper, I keep track of who I sent cards to each year. A circle around the line means that I have mailed or distributed the card. A single line means that I need to distribute the card or I need to update the address information. No line or circle means that I did not give that person a card this year.

Ah, the free labels from all those companies that know I need them for my cards.

Okay, this year...I did not have any Christmas stickers in my house. How is that even possible??? My two favorite things: Stickers AND Christmas. I have been buying so many Christmas stamps that I haven't been buying many stickers lately....SOOO, I am using some stickers that a friend gave me...They are those old black and white pictures of little kids holding red roses and kissing. Cute, but not super Christmasy....all well....

Add the stamps. Mail with love.

Thanks for reading!!
I am feeling really on top of things this year with my cards done. I hand out some to family members, pass some out at work and I mail the rest. I have it all DONE! Yay! Now, it is time to kick back and relax.

{More} Christmas Cards!!

You may have spotted a silver or gold hedgehog over on my Christmas card post a couple of weeks ago. I decided that the best way to showcase all the cards would be to put them into a grid, but here are a few extra cards I have made since then. Obviously, I am loving hedgehogs at the moment. Here is a cute silver one! I made him with silver embossing powder and paired it up with some awesome Hambly overlay action.


And I just love having lime green, magenta, and turquoise on my cards!!




Some images may be (c) Close to My Heart.

Christmas Cards 2009

I've been very, very busy.....and still more to make! I love Christmas!!


Stamped images (c) Close to My Heart.

What the what?!?!

A few weeks ago, I participated in a Blogger user study with Google. Basically, I had to write a diary entry every day that I made a post and at the end of the two weeks I had to be on the phone with someone at Google for an hour answering follow-up questions and providing some feedback. Very easy, I made a little extra money, no big deal. I was happy to participate.

I was surprised to find that a few days later, along with my gift checks was a card. A HAND-WRITTEN thank you card from Google! Google is a huge company, yet someone took the time to tell me thank you...and it wasn't a computer generated letter, it was an actual card. As a card crafter, this meant so much to me. It is up on my mantle.


I miss making cards for fun...I don't feel like I have had time to make regular cards lately I am sort of looking for a good color inspiration challenge site...I don't really like sketch challenges but I LOVE color challenges. Does anyone know of a good one?

In other news....
I hope to attend a crop at some point this weekend...I have a lot going on....but I have a list of projects that I would like to revisit in the near future so that they don't get lost in the shuffle before the year ends.
Project 52
One Little Word
December Daily (basic book is put together, YAY!)

Are you attempting to finish any of these same projects? I would love to see what you have going on with your December Daily, One Little Word or Project 52...

Christmas Cards Part 1

When it comes to creating Christmas cards I like to start early in the year. I have been making my own cards for about 4 years. This year I started earlier than ever. I don't like to make every card the same, although sometimes I will make 5 or more of the same style. I intend to make around 100 cards this year. I have most of them bases assembled and now I am working on the stamping and embellishing. Yahoo!

I made these cards a couple of weeks ago. Sorry for the 'spring-ish' background paper...it was just something I grabbed...and then I realized it wasn't super Christmas-y...All well....I wanted to post some simple Christmas cards today. I used Jingle paper, a couple of my favorite stamp sets and I played around with some glitter and rhinestones!

Enjoy!







All images are (c) Close to My Heart.

Open House Gift Card Holder

On Saturday September 12th, I am having an Open House to show off some new products in the CTMH Fall/Winter Idea Book. I am super excited to teach everyone how to make a little gift card holder using cardstock, a strip of patterned paper and an envelope. I learned how to make it by watching a video over at the Chic'n'Scratch website.



You basically seal an envelope, cut it in half and then fold the cardstock around it. When you open the flap, you can place a note and a gift card inside. I must admit, these are a little plain for me...I LOVE BLING! But, I decided to keep them simple so that they would be easy to take to some out of town workshops I am teaching over the next few months. They are perfect for beginning stampers because it is one image, NOEL, with some random stamping on the base. For the paper, I am using Jingle...I wish I had more cardstock on hand...the only thing I had in bulk was Ocean and Cranberry...they don't perfectly match, but I am making it work.

Another Christmas in July Card (for a swap!)

Okay, I have been struggling with this swap club card for a couple of weeks. I knew that I wanted to have the textured Ocean and Tulip card stock and my original plan also had the large star from 'Shining Star' as the main image on the card. When I stamped the large star, I just couldn't get it to look right so I went back to the drawing board. I already had the card bases made, stamped and distressed so I had to find something to go with my color scheme and I don't own any CTMH patterned paper that would would've really worked with those colors....so I knew I was going to need a creative solution!

Last night, I wasn't feeling super creative, but I went over to the Christmas Stampin' All Year long blog to surf for ideas. My browser stopped on a wonderful little cardinal card. (And when I say that it stopped, I mean that it froze! Something about that site makes my browser freeze every time!) Anyway, it was made using a circle punch and some felt. It was perfect!

Everything on this card is CTMH (except for the punches of course!) It was pretty easy to duplicate the cardinal on all 10 of my cards!



Enjoy! Thanks for reading!!

Christmas in July '09

I LOVE to make Christmas cards. It is one of my favorite things about being a paper crafter! Recently, I was cleaning out my card stash and I found this fabulous design using non-traditional colors. This card was created by my cousin Stormi a few years ago! I love it!!

I signed up for a card swap and I decided to use her card as my inspiration.

I used paper from Perfect Day. I used a stamp set called Magical season. I stamped the tree and star with blush ink, versamark and silver pearl embossing powder. I used a corner rounder, scalloped edge punch, and some bulk ribbon to create 12 of these 4X4 cards.


I am REALLY struggling with my 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 cards that I am also swaping. I have them started, but I can't decide where to go from here...I thought I was going to use a big star from Shining star, but it just isn't looking good....I dunno, off to surf for ideas! Thanks for reading!!

GREEN Christmas Creation

Last night, I had all my supplies laying around that I had used to make my canvas with images from recycled cards. I wanted to make another canvas, but I didn't have any that were blank so I decided to come up with something. I have been really thinking about ways I can reuse packages and products. This blog gave me a really good idea. I looked around my craft room and spotted a box flat. I use these constantly to store scraps and art supplies at school. They are free and reusable over and over again. I remember one time in college I had to set up an Art Interest Center as a place to hold art supplies that could be changed throughout the year. I used a cardboard box and my teacher actually told me that I should invest in a tote. I remember thinking....a cardboard box is free...and recycled....now they are my most basic staple as a teacher. I use them to cart materials from school to school and as glitter trays. They are free!! Anyway, sorry to rant. Here is the box I had at home.



I decided to cover it with some Martha Stewart paper. I have several rolls that I got on clearance last year. I used those sheets of sticky dots on the large flat side of the box and then folded it over and taped it inside the box. I learned how to fold the paper like this in college when making canvases. Nothing too fancy, but it is just tucking the corners in without cutting them.


I had a bunch of shapes left over from the canvas. I used my Martha Stewart craft punch to cut them out. It was the exact perfect shape to fit inside the bottle cap. When I was thinking of how to arrange them on the canvas, I remembered a really cool technique I had seen on Alli Edwards site from 2007 using bottle caps. I ran to the kitchen.....and scattered all over the counter tops (did I mention that I had a Christmas Party Saturday night and I spent Sunday working in my craft room rather than cleaning.)



Anyway, nearly 2 dozen bottle caps littered the counter tops so I grabbed them up and started arranging them. I put the little punched shapes from Christmas cards inside each one. I could've added beads, glitter and gloss...but I liked how simple they were with the tiny image, and lots already had glitter. I arranged them in the shape of a Christmas tree, added glue dots and VIOLA!! A little Christmas masterpiece.





One other thing to help me hang it up. I used a glue dot on each end of this ribbon. The ribbon is from the a Christmas ornament package.



Anyway, file this in your idea box...It was so easy and almost made completely from re-useable products that you might have laying around.

National Stamping Month, A tribute

Saturday night, I had a whole group of friends and family over to celebrate National Stamping Month...I provided snacks, setting and supplies for this fun night. I took a few pics before it got started, but I totally forgot about my camera once everyone got here as I was busy being the hostess with the mostess.







I love stamping, scrapping, and card making. I want to get my friends involved and active....most of them do not do this on their own time, and they claim that they are not creative, but they do love to do the 'crafty' type stuff. Here are the cards that I created for the event. I pre-cut the supplies for each one and had everything they would need placed in a box. I also had a station for embossing and a scrap box in case anyone wanted to play around with my new supplies and Christmas stamp sets or learn something new. I had drawings for free giveaways throughout the night. All of the supplies used are from Close to My Heart.






In addition to the free drawings, I had a box with a stamp set, ribbon, paper and buttons. My guests were challenged to make a card using only the supplies in that box. The stamp set is Shining Star....Like I said, I forgot all about my camera so I did not get a shot of their attempts...but here is mine:

Christmas in July Challenge

I just couldn't resist entering a card for the Christmas in July Challenge

I love creating Christmas cards with colors that are non-traditional. Enjoy!