Merry Christmas!!!

Just a note to wish you all a Merry Christmas and every blessing in the New Year!!  Enjoy your friends and family and count your blessings!!

It was a trip down memory lane when we put up the tree this year as we unwrapped ornaments we have not seen for quite a few years because we have been travelling over Christmas.  They all fit on the tree!!

Therese

Large embossed Christmas cards

These are the other kits I prepared for my cardmaking session last night.  I created these for one of my Christmas card classes and still had some supplies so I prepped a few kits.  I used a variety of colours and embossing folders.  I decided to add a bit of colour to all of the ones I made by sponging very lightly over the embossed areas with ink.  I like the look!!  Before I headed for bed I decided to add a bit of bling to them as well so I added red glitter glue to the berries on the holly one, silver glitter glue to the snow flake one and several rhinestones to the tree one.  A bit of a different look from the clean and simple (CAS) look of the ones I created earlier.
I hope you have your cards ready to go and are in the home stretch in your preparations for Christmas.  I am ready other than some food preparation that will happen in the next few days.

Therese

Embossed with oval greeting

I created these greetings at the same time as the ones I used on these cards though they never made into the kits for that class.  So, yesterday, I invited my friend and her daughter over to make cards and decided to make up kits using them.  The image is from MudMaven Designs and I really love the little bird.  These were quick and easy cards to make - just a bit of colour on the greetings, layer onto the larger oval and add this element to the embossed card front using 3D foam tape.  I added a bit of glitter gel pen to greeting and its layer on this one.
We had a wonderful evening and they went home with some cards and goodies!  After they left I thought this was wonderful way to gift friends with cards because you get the gift of their company as well.

Therese

Santas with a vintage look

A few more cards created with supplies from my stash!!  I sponged the edges of my backgrounds, added seam binding and 1/8" ribbon, glued them to card fronts and added my layered colour printed Santa images.
I like how much of the background shows with the smaller images.

Therese

Santa with ruffled seam biniding

I needed just a few more Christmas cards so I went looking into my stash and found these backgrounds along with these Santa images and thought they would work well together.  I have been wanting to ruffle seam binding so decided to give it a try as this card needed a bit of texture.  I laid down a piece of double sided tape and started at the top by laying the seam binding onto the tape, making a little fold and repeating.  I really like how it turned out and it was easy to do!!  I added white 1/8" ribbon over it, tied it down with crochet cotton and added a little round greeting.  I sponged the background and added it to a black card front then layered my Santa image on red to coordinate with my seam binding.
I like the creative challenge of digging into my stash and finding supplies that I can combine to create new projects.

Therese

Iridescent Christmas RAK card

 Created this card as a RAK  - Random Act of Kindness - for a member of one of my groups.  It is always wonderful to receive a handmade card in the mail so I should really be doing this more often!!
The main element is Angelina Fiber impressed with a snowflake.  This was a fun activity with a group of friends - they had purchased a variety of colours and wanted to play.  I chose this bluish iridescent fiber and a snowflake stamp inked with blue.  Here is a tutorial if you are interested in giving it a try.  I added a silver snowflake confetti then layered it onto colour printed decorative paper which was stamped with snowflakes in blue and embellished with a blue gel pen on a blue card front and attached all the layers using a mini silver brad.  I added the torn vellum greeting afterwards - you get a very cool look when you layer the vellum over the angelina fiber - but I did have to peel up the edges of my decorative paper to tuck the ends of the greeting below it.  The soft blue of this card  seems to be just right to go with this greeting.
RAKs are such a wonderful way to spread love into the world!!

Therese

3D snowflake embellshment

 Here is a close up of the 3D snowflake embellishment I created for my Twisted Christmas cards.

I used:
1 - 1 1/4" punchie (SU)
1 - 1 3/8" punchie  (SU)
1 - snowflake punchie  (MS) (you could use confetti)
1 - sequin
1 - brad
6 - snowflake punchies

First, layer the snowflake punchie onto the 1 1/4" punchie, then that onto the 1 3/8" punchie.  Position the sequin in the center of the snowflake, make a hole and insert the brad.

Next, glue the snowflake punchies to the back of this  element positioning them with their centers aligned with the spaces between the branches of the snowflake.  Position the center of the punchies just to the outside of the edge of the layered element you just created.

This creates a nice 3D embellishment for adding to your cards, tags or back to back for making ornaments.

Enjoy!!

Therese

More Twisted Christmas cards

I created more Twisted Christmas cards.  You can see the others here. I played with the dimensions a bit so I could  put them into A2 invitation size envelopes.  You need to cut the length to 10 1/8" and you can leave the width at 4.25".  See the link above to find the tutorial on how to fold and score them.  I added decorative paper from my scraps so I just cut what I needed to cover the different areas of the cards.  These cards are cool because they have a pocket on the front and the inside.  I sealed off the front one before I added my dimensional  snowflake embellishment.  You can check out the

next post to see what I used and how I put them together!!  I added a colour printed greeting which I punched with the Window Punch (SU).
My Christmas cards went out today!!  I always write a family newsletter, print it on decorative letter head and include it in my cards to catch people up on what is going on at our house!!  I love getting news in my Christmas cards too!  Especially from those who we only write to once a year at Christmas!

Therese

Upcycled Heart ornaments

 I have been making little heart ornaments for my friends - just a little handmade something!!  The base of these hearts is a red sweater I bought years ago and wore all the time, especially at Christmas.  As it happens, it because a little stretched out and no longer looked great and fit well so it was removed from my closet to the give away pile.  When I was sorting through that pile I saw my sweater in a new light - crafts supply!!  So I brought into my craft room and cut it apart to so I could use it in my creations.  I first used it to die cut hearts for cards and went looking for it the other day to see if it would work for these little ornaments I had in mind.  One section had Heat N Bond already applied to it because it needed to be stabilized for die cutting earlier so I just ironed it to another piece of the same and  cut out hearts my hand.  I added a bead, round sequin and snowflake sequin to each side by sewing them together with crochet cotton.  I also added blanket stitch all they way around

using the same white crochet cotton.  I created the hanger using the two ends as I started my stitching at the top dip of the heart.
I am really liking the handmade look they have and that my red sweater will live on as tree ornaments in the homes of my friends and family!!
Christmas is about what is in your heart and not about what is under the tree!  There will be less under the tree this year because as a family we have decided to make a charitable donation instead of buying adult gifts. So we will be shopping for the grandchildren and sharing hand made goodies with our families!!
If the holidays are stressing you out, consider changing your mind about what needs to be done and changing any traditions that no longer work for you and your family.  You get to choose!!!

Therese

Christmas Tree tags

 Created these tags for the Tag Exchange with my card making group!  I die cut some decorative paper I created when I made this card using this cool tree die (SX) and then cut bases out of white cardstock for each one.  After gluing them together I sponged all the edges with green ink to blend the white to the green.  I die cut the stars and trunks separately, trimmed them neatly and glued them on afterwards.   I used hot glue to adhere the red sequins to the tree.  Had to be careful as the heat from the glue does interesting things to the plastic sequins.  To finish off the middles I added a little squirt of red glitter glue!  The perfect touch!

Here is the forest of trees that I created!  I did add a string to the top so it can be attached to a gift or used as an ornament!!
We cleaned on the weekend so we could start decorating the house for my get together tonight.  Yeah, the tree is up and has lights!!  Will add ornaments this afternoon and we will be ready to go!!  Looking forward to enjoying all of my Christmas decorations.  We are home this year for the holidays.

Therese