My five for January, turned into fourteen... :)

As most of you who follow me know, I have participated in a challenge to do five Christmas cards a month for the last four years.  Originally, it was to have enough cards for the early call to Operation Write Home in July and then final call in October.  OWH closed it's doors in August of 2016 so they are not going to be the recipient of my cards going forward.  However, since marrying the Ernman, we have sent Christmas cards as a couple AND he likes to give a card to each of his work peers (each one different), not to mention the ones we send to our clients.  SO, I still need to and want to make Christmas cards.  Even with my best efforts last year, I came up short...

 

My challenge THIS year is not only to make five Christmas cards a month but to make at least two different types so I have enough "different" for the Ernman's work peers.  THIS month I made fourteen cards with only three of those being duplicate... yay me!!  Off and running...

 

 So, on that note, I purchased the "Simon Says Stamp Christmas Card Kit" back in December to give me a jump on my challenge.  I purchased it because of this image.  I thought it would be an awesome card for the Ernman's boss.  I, however, never got it done in time. BUT, it will be ready for next year.  I did three of these before I moved on to the rest...

 

The stockings are stamped.  I used the puffy stickers and dove from the kit.  I added faux stitching for interest...

 

I stamped the "Merry Christmas" on this printed paper, layered it, added sequins and thought, is this it?  I added faux stitching again, for interest.  By this time, I had made three of the six "pictured" cards from the kit and thought, "This is just not doing it for me."  I had no ideas on what to do with all the stuff.  I "googled" the kit and came up with a YouTube video of a woman in Greece who had made ten different cards using the items in the kit.  I was THRILLED!!  SO, the rest of these cards were influenced by her...

 

 I made my own snow bank to add the polar bear to but this made me wish, again, that I had those curved dies...

 

 

Papers and puffy stickers...

 

Then OMG!! I made my first ever "Shaker" card!  Wicked fun!  And way easier than I anticipated...

 

So, I made another.  In this one, I think the glitter is too fine.  It looks messy.  BUT, it's still a shaker card... :)

 

 I thought this was pretty clever.  The red papers are popped with dimensionals and look like they are part of the same "tying".  I can see using this layout with several of my scrap papers and come up with a relatively simple card... 

 

Papers , puffy stickers and sequins.  The sequins in the kit have adhesive on the back.  Really easy to work with...

Papers and puffy stickers...



Super simple but darn adorable...

 

This was the last card I did last night just using bits and pieces left on the desk...

So, although I started out not too enthusiastic about this kit, I was quite thrilled with the end results.  There are still enough papers to make a few more cards so I can say, this was worth the money.  And in my first month of the challenge, I ROCKED it!!