Random Christmas Cards

The final push for Christmas cards, made over the last seven weeks. We have enough for personal cards but everyone will be getting something different. With the kitchen renovation and now the downstairs bathroom remodel at our new home in TN, it's been difficult to get into a good creative swing. It'll be so good to start 2023 back doing my challenge of five Christmas cards a month... :)

Finished Christmas Cards Prior to Year End...

These dozen I completed between Christmas and New Year's. They are like others I did during the year but they weren't completely finished in time to send. The ATC's in the front are still in need of a sentiment but... not today. It was delightful to have the time to finish these this week, so I did. :)

From the October 2021 Paper Pumpkin kit, and previous post. I had enough envelopes to make five more...

Finished Scrappy Backgrounds that are a quick and easy card. Add twine, bling and sentiment and bada boom! More Christmas cards...

This one, the background was completed from a video I watched of Nina-Marie Trapani's a couple months ago. The struggle here was die-cutting this Concord and 9th mistletoe three times and stacking them. Ou vey!

And a napkin card completed...

Off and running tomorrow with my annual challenge to make a minimum of five Christmas cards each month... who's with me? And, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Paper Pumpkin Christmas Kit...

As I finished working with the October 2021 Paper Pumpkin kit, I was soooo delighted! I followed tutorials from a couple different peeps who showcase doing alternative cards with the supplies in the kit. By the end, I had made thirty cards (with makings for five more) AND completed matching envelopes. I have a challenge for myself to make five Christmas cards a month during the year but had missed two months in a row, which made me feel short supplied...

These two are what the kit was supposed to make, five of each. I made one each...

I made one each of these three. They didn't knock my socks off but I'm happy to have them for my stash...

This one, I thought, was very, very clever. The kit comes with ten envelopes that are embossed with the silver trees on the bottom. Creative Chelsea, on YouTube, cut each envelope into thirds and created this. I found it to be very elegant! I made five but have five other envelopes that can also be broken apart..

These three, I absolutely loved and made three each! The first card on the left was using the negative space of the vellum trees, which are on card number three here on the right. I thought this was SOOOOOO clever! 

The last task of this month, is to get these addressed and postal. Then, I can start ALL OVER again in January with my challenge to "Make Five Christmas Cards a Month"... who's with me?

Our Personal Christmas Cards

This was such a wonderful Paper Pumpkin kit for October. It was supposed to make eight cards but I stretched it to sixteen...

This was my favorite! I turned four into eight. I really love the layout and I can see it working for many other cards. Let's see if I actually ever get around to CASEing this elsewhere. You know me... the speed demon! LOL
 

The kit came with words in other languages that I will never use. I watched a video of a woman who used those other words to be an embellishment under the wreath. How freakin' clever is that!! 

These now need matching envelopes so that's next on my agenda before they go postal. Merry Christmas peeps and may the holidays hold all the joy you wish... 

And the Gnomes Have It...

 These were such an ordeal for me to finish. I first starting working on them on Sunday, December 15th of last year. By 9am, I had posted a very happy picture on Instagram of how much fun I was having putting them together. It reminded me of my paper dolls when I was little. But, an hour later, I learned that my mom's cat, whom I had adopted a couple months previously, had been struck and killed just a block away. I couldn't look at these again without feeling my broken heart...

 But, finally, they are finished. I'm hoping by the time Christmas rolls around again, my bad memories will be long gone when looking at these guys... here's hoping!

The Gnome is by Simon Says Stamp, the sentiment strip by Taylored Expressions and the paper from some plaid note-cards I took apart...

Watercolor cards...

So, the Monday before Thanksgiving, I spent the day with Susan Hiles, who lives north of me here in New Jersey. She taught me some free hand water-coloring. THIS was the first thing we did. It was so fun! I was amazed at how pretty it turned out. But wait, look below...

This week, I turned it into THIS card. OMG! I am SOOOOOO blown away!

This one had a slight learning curve. I kept wanting to go the wrong way with the points of the holly. I'm sure that makes absolutely no sense... LOL. But, look below for what happened with this...

DA BOMB!! Those Taylored Expressions strip sentiments work wonders to make magic. And, of course, a stitched die-cut and extra colored layers, sequins and Nuvo drops...

This one, as doing it, reminded me of something my grandmother had painted on porcelain. When I got home, I took a picture of my work next to hers, which btw, has a date of 1950 on the back. All her porcelain I had just acquired when my mother downsized this past April. NOW, look what I did with this piece...

OH MY GOD!!! This is so damn pretty! These three cards will dwell in my Studio for the next year. At that time, I may be tired of looking at them and I'll find an appropriate recepient. It would definitely have to be someone who would hold on to and cherish it... :)

Update: 12-5-20 Another piece I did with Susan but didn't like. However, in a challenge in Seongsook's in August, this worked!

Update: 12-13-21 I think this is the last piece from this event that was turned into a card. Funny story though, again another challenge in Seongsook's in August of this year and I got SOOO excited that I could create a WATERCOLOR card with this that I didn't notice that the rest of the challenge was for it to be a BIRTHDAY card. Oh well, my bad. BUT, off it went to Susan for her Christmas card this year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS PEEPS!! And thank you for following me this past year...

Ink Pad Class...

 I drove into New York City last night to take a class at the Ink Pad. I know what you're thinking, "YOU DROVE INTO NEW YORK CITY?!!!!" Yeah, I'm nuts...

 All of the cards we made were using Mama Elephant stamps and dies...

 Cute little penguins... and when I say "little", I mean LITTLE! 

 This was cute! The little characters making snow angels...

 A very apropos card for NYC... so damn cute! 

 This was the last one we did and the only one I had to finish at home. I love. love, love this die! Definitely on my wish list for Black Friday! And BTW... that makes my five Christmas cards for November COMPLETE!! Of course, there will be a LOT more as now it's crunch time for the personal cards to be done. The Ernman is home at Thanksgiving and the personal ones will need to be signed before he heads back to California... :)

And this is me and the instructor, Cheiron Brandon. I met her a few years ago when I took her Holiday Extravaganza class. She is one creative soul and a really neat lady...

June's Christmas Cards...

 Here's my FIVE Christmas cards for June... just in time. These are Penny Black stickers I THINK I got while at last years Junkie Fest. Honestly, I don't remember but every time I've looked at the sticker sheet all this past year, I've thought of Junkie Fest. Which btw, is going on right now in Minneapolis. I hope everyone has as much fun this year as I did last year...

 I took each of the five stickers and stuck them onto a beige sheet from the Paper Studio's "Christmas on Amesbury Street" 12" x 12" pad that I have and cut around that to give the sticker some substance. The red patterned paper is from the same pad. The other piece is a scrap. I used Love from Lizi's gold sticker between the two papers for a little pizzazz...

 Each sticker panel is popped with foam tape...

 This one, I thought, was too pretty to put on the patterned papers...

I haven't put sentiments on any of these yet. I think I want to but I'm not sure how. Enlighten me with your thoughts... 

UPDATE: 12-7-19 Oh my!! What a difference the sentiment makes...

Cozy Crop Productivity...

 Cozy Crop week went from Easter Sunday, April 21st, until the following Sunday, April 28th. This was my seventh consecutive visit. Ending productivity count was fifty completed cards. The beginning of the week wasn't as productive as the end of the week. I was a little "out of sorts" as the week wasn't going as I had expected...

 

 These are from a Queen and Company kit. Although the cards are lovely, I was quite disappointed in the kit. It was marketed as "all inclusive" but I discovered it was not. And for $39.95, I was not happy. There were NO instructions included and all paper used came from one 6" x 6" pad. This, of course, makes the paper go 10x faster. I purchased this kit because the colors were incredibly vibrant. In person, they were not. I know the people crafting with me were not happy with my "complaining" but it's difficult for me not to be vocal when I feel I've been taken for a ride. No more Queen and Company kits for me. Lesson learned... :(

 

 This card however, was my favorite and although not as bright as the advertisement, it's still a fun card and I love it...

 

Another crafter and I had a "foiling session". Of the fifteen images I did, only these four were "Cindy quality" (the airplane card has a background piece). I've thrown in the towel on this medium as well. WAY too much money to spend on product to only have 30% of it be up to my standards. I gave away most of the images to the other crafter...

 



 This had to be the most fun part of the cardmaking week. Susan Hiles, who has been with me all seven visits and sits next to me, took my box of  "partials" and helped me create twenty-one cards using items from the box. I was stunned! Some of these pieces are from cards made as far back as 2015. I've lugged these around for ages. Well, at least years anyway. This was SO, SO fun! And now, my box is very light weight... woot, woot!!

And, of course, I did make my five Christmas cards for April. Three designs but five cards. The poinsettias are from a W plus 9 stamp and die set. called "Christmas Rose Bouquet". The "peace" card was following a card I saw on Pinterest. I may do this one again... it's different!

 

 

So, another Cozy Crop week under our belt. The trip home, Susan and I critiqued the week and thought maybe a week was too long. Maybe it was. If everyone isn't meshing perfectly, the week can drag...

 



My five for March...

 These are a Unity image I borrowed from a friends Kit of the Month (October 2018, I believe) and colored last month with my Copics.

 

I used paper from my Christmas stash, sequins and a star paperclip that was in some goodies Seongsook gave me when I met her at Christmas. The wonky die-cut piece behind is from Gina Marie Designs called "Loopy Rectangle". The sentiment is from the Lawn Fawn "Winter Fox" set. I thought the "warm" fit well with the scarf, boots and hat. I added a cardinal from the birds die-cuts by Impression Obsession and gave it dimension with Glossy Accents. It's an unconventional Christmas card but it gets the job done. And it's MARCH, I haven't missed a month yet!! YAY me!! LOL :)