Some Hand-Made Christmas Cards

I wanted to share some of the lovely hand-made cards I've received this year, so here they are (in no particular order!):

This reindeer card is from Paula, the "punch art queen"!  I can't believe how much work went into this!  Isn't it amazing?

Treena made this beautiful bird card.  It's hard to see the details in the photo, but there is gold ink sponged ont eh embossing and around the edges - it is really stunning!

This beautiful, sparkly card is from Bea.  She used dazzling diamonds glitter over the image so it's shimmery like a snowfall.  Gorgeous!

This gorgeous card is from Susan.  I love this stamped image paired with gold and burgundy- just stunning!  Look at the shadow from the young Jesus. 

Martha made this card using a black and white photo of her yard, paired with Cherry Cobbler and Sahara Sand.  Isn't it lovely?

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have, and I hope your Christmas holiday is full of love and laughter.

Blessings,

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Everyone! Just a quick post to wish you a wonderful day full of blessings.

Here's a photo of my boys from this morning.  They woke us up before dawn because they were so excited!  We let them open their stockings before we read the Christmas story from Matthew 1.  We are thankful to be able to celebrate God's miraculous gift of His Son to us by sharing gifts with each other. 

Merry Christmas,

Some Non-Christmas Cards!

I know Christmas is only four days away, but I am honestly a little bit tired of making Christmas cards!  I started making them in August, so I'm feeling ready for something else! Luckily, my friend, Kennie, booked a stamp-a-stack last week where we made different occasions cards.  She wanted to make some cards to give as Christmas gifts so people would have an assortment to use throughout the year.  Here are the cards we made:

I love the bright colours in the Summer Smooches designer series paper!  This card screams "Happy Birthday" with Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo and Lucky Limeade!  The images are from Bright Blossoms, and the sentiment is from Sassy Salutations.  Some Daffodil Delight stitched grosgrain ribbon finishes off the card.

Okay, I admit the colours in this one are a bit Christmas-y, but I love Gumball Green and Raspberry Ripple!  The Gumball Green piece is embossed with the Lacy Brocade embossing folder.  The image from Fabulous Florets is stamped in Raspberry Ripple, and the greeting is from Word Play.  We also added some Raspberry Ripple stitched satin ribbon.

I've had the Apothecary Art stamp set for awhile, and I think this is the first time I've used it!  It's so beautiful!  I used Wisteria Wonder and Basic Gray as the base colours, along with some Pretty in Pink polka-sot scalloped ribbon.  The image is stamped in Basic Gray, and we used blender pens with Pretty in Pink and Wisteria Wonder ink to colour in the flowers.  Of course, the Labels Collection framelits dies coordinate perfectly with the stamp set, so I had to use those!

This is our masculine birthday card.  I used Early Espresso as the card base, along with a layer of Very Vanilla cardstock.  The 1" circles are punched from the Orchard Harvest designer series paper.  The sentiment from Petite Pairs is stamped in Early Espresso on some Cajun Craze cardstock and punched with the Decorative Label punch.  At the stamp-a-stack, I also had out the Four Frames stamp set, so the ladies could stamp that on the label piece before stamping the sentiment.  It looks a lot better with the frame border!

I hope you enjoy these non-Christmas cards!  If I don't get a chance to post before then, Merry Christmas to all of you, and all God's blessings for a safe and prosperous New Year!

Blessings to you,

December Scrapbook Club Layout

This is the layout my Scrapbook Club ladies made this week.  I CASEd the first page of the layout from my wonderful upline, Winona Semler, and added the second page to complement the first one.

The first layout has Candlelight Christmas designer series paper as a base.  We cut out some ornaments with the Big Shot and the Ornament Keepsake framelits to make stencils, then placed them on the Very Vanilla 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock.  We used the colour spritzer tool to spray Early Espresso ink around the stencils to leave ornament outlines, then we removed the stncils.  Finally, we stamped some ornaments and cut them out to add to the layout.  There is some Early Espresso baker's twine as well.

Blessings to you,

December Stamp Club Cards

Alas, it is the last month to do Christmas cards with my club ladies!  Here are the cards we'll be making this month.

This first card was designed by one of the talented ladies in my downline, Christine Burbidge-Boyd.  I tweaked it a little bit because I wanted to use the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique.  The colour scheme is Night of Navy with Whisper White.  I used the Christmas Lodge stamp set here.  The lodge image is stamped, then sponged around the edges. I then covered the whole piece with VersaMark and sprinkled Iridescent Ice embossing powder on it.  After it is heat set, the whole image sparkles!  It's really pretty in real life!

It's difficult to tell from the photo, but this card is a Fun Fold card.  When it's closed, you see the Pacific Point snowflake through the scallop square window.  When you open it up, a sentiment piece slides into the square opening so you can read "Peace on Earth".  I used Pacific Point, Bashful Blue and Perfect Plum with the Snowflake Soiree stamp set.  The scallop square piece is from the Peekaboo Frames die (the center opening square is cut out).  I also used the 1-3/8" square punch to make the openings.  Some Whisper White organdy ribbon and rhinestone jewels finish off the card.

I've shown this card before here, but I haven't done it with my club ladies yet.  It uses the Merry Minis stamp set and punches, along with the ornament paper piercing template.  I LOVE these cute little punched images!

As a bonus project/Christmas gift, my club ladies will get to make this adorable paper ornament.  If you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, you've seen these ornaments on the cover of the latest issue of Stampin' Success magazine.  My upline, Winona Semler, came up with this particular one.  It uses First Edition specialty paper with some Cherry Cobbler circles and Vintage Trinkets brads, along with some Early Espresso baker's twine.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings to you,