Christmas in July

Upon cleaning up my craft room, reorganizing and rearranging I came across some older papers and complements. I know that Christmas in July is a real thing, a real smart thing! Why not get all those crafts done long before the craziness of the season is hitting you like a runaway sleigh! So I sat down at my freshly cleaned up table and created a couple Christmas cards. Nothing fancy, just wanted to use these beautiful, sparkly complements and sentiments.

Who participates in Christmas in July every year? Do you recognize these old papers? Leave a comment and give some love to your older stash of products. After all, there will be new goodies for the holidays coming very soon!!

2014 Christmas Card Exchange

Yesterday I held my annual Christmas card exchange. This year I had a total of 7 participants including myself. We exchanged our creative cards, ate some yummy food and played with some paper while laughing and exchanging stories. As always I was delighted with all the talent and creativity that this group of ladies brings every year!

The card I created this year was inspired by one that I saw on Pinterest. I had no instructions though and needed to incorporate products exclusively from Close To My Heart. I loved the idea of creating a Christmas scene within a cozy home setting. Not only did I pull out some older non-Christmas stamps, but I also dug out some older retired textiles!

I used my Cricut to make a variety of cuts from a couple of the cartridges. I also borrowed my daughters sewing machine to sew the fabric curtains on the window!

Do you recognize those old sassy strands wrapped around the Christmas tree? I even created a snowy scene behind the vellum framed window!

Here are the cards from the ladies~

Aren't they all amazing!!

I also made a small gift for them as a sincere thank you for their participation and hanging out with me for some creative fun!

Inside of these adorable little burlap bags were a couple of my favorite types of tea. I hope that when they are relaxing at home, enjoying their tea, that they will think of me and our fun creative times we shared throughout the whole year. I really, truly have the best customers and friends!

In my next post I will share with you what these wonderful ladies were up to at our get-together! Hmmm....I wonder what they could be making?

Blue & Kraft Snowman

I have used this stamp set before and always enjoy creating these little snowmen. He has different faces, hats and scarves to play with! I put him in a layer of white snow and used kraft cardstock in the background with some soft snowflakes. Using the color combination at Dynamic Duos I added some blue on the stripes of his hat and scarf. It makes him so cute!

Jingle for Freshly Made Sketches

I had this idea for a card using the song lyrics from Jingle Bells. I searched all of my stamps and didn't have a single sentiment that said "jingle all the way" or even just the word "jingle"! Next best thing is to create a sentiment yourself with alphabet stamps!

Using the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches this week, here is my card.

 

Merry & Bright

I wanted to share some clean and simple Christmas cards I made using up some scraps I've collected throughout the year! I've been doing this quite a bit lately hoping to empty my scraps bag before the new year!

I am entering these cards in the Heart 2 Heart Christmas challenge since they will not be posting a new challenge this week with the Holiday and all! Also, I was super excited to see that my "glitter" card was chosen in November's top ten, check it out here. Woo~hoo!!

Rainbow colors were a big trend this year! Why not incorporate that in Christmas cards, it makes them so bright and cheery. My cards were also inspired by a photo greeting card I received by one of my customers. Her beautiful family dressed in black & white in front of bright colorful panels and the sentiment "Happy Joyful Twenty Twelve Merry & Bright" in rainbow colors. It was so cute and different! {Thanks for the inspiration Nikki!}

Holiday Shopper

I am playing along with 3 challenges today. I suppose these challenges pushed me to try something really different and unexpected for a Christmas card! Here it is~

I used the sketch at Freshly Made.

I added some snowflakes for the challenge at the paper players.

Finally, my savvy shopping gal was inspired by the photo at Inspired By!

A Snowy Spring Break

Today my pages are from our Spring Break vacation. We always love visiting and exploring Zion National Park. Who knew we would encounter snow in the Spring. Zion is already such a beautiful place, but with a sprinkling of snow it became even more majestic and gorgeous!

I used papers that naturally coordinate with the landscape, but added in some blues to reflect the change of weather we experienced. I even had to pull out my Christmas/Winter stamps again to stamp a few snowflakes!

{All products used are Close To My Heart}

Jingle Banner

Do you ever create one of those projects that makes you happy. When it's completed you feel a sense of accomplishment and so proud of your creative abilities. This is one of those projects for me.

I tend to do my best work when I create for others. When I have a specific person in mind and want them to have something one of a kind, those projects become my favorites. Who was in mind for this festive Jingle Banner? My mom of course!



I used some older tags from a tag book that Close To My Heart sold. The white base is from the Top Note sizzix die. The "jingle" letters and snowflakes were cut from the Cricut AP cartridge. I added several different types of ribbon & twine.



You have to add some bells for a "jingle" banner!

So difficult to capture through photography, but the base of the tags are sprayed with some shimmer paint and there is a bit of glitter glue flakes in the center of the white snowflakes.

I placed it in some cute packaging to mail it off to her!

Also, while my mom was visiting in November we sat down one day to create her Christmas cards. She wanted something with snowflakes and unique, hence the pink and brown color combination.

inside~

Gifts To My Customers

I really have the best customers. They are the nicest bunch of women and I'm guaranteed a laugh every time they visit! I try to give them little goodies at Christmas to show my appreciation for their business as well as friendship.

This year they got to choose one of these cute little boxes if they placed an order this month. Inside each of them was a tiny scroll of paper that revealed their prize! These little boxes were cut on the Cricut using the Art Philosophy cartridge. They have been adorned with various Christmas stamps and ribbons.

A peek inside~

Each of my customers also chose one of these darling treat sacks filled with Dove chocolates. {Have you tried the peppermint bark candies...YUM!} The shapes were cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge for these also. They had a difficult time choosing between the festive elves or the beautiful blue snowflakes!

Want to see more ideas using the Art Philosophy cartridge?

Back to Basics

I decided to begin a new monthly class this year called Back to Basics Class or B2BC. I have some new customers this year that have done little or no scrapbooking before. I really had to take myself back a couple of years to remember where I got my start. The idea is to make simple pages that still have a pop of personality. They require little time, minimum supplies and low cost. Perfect for beginners or those who need to catch up on some scrapbooking in their busy lives.

Here is my January page. The photo does not give it justice. The colors are truly more rich in person. I will share my next pages as the year goes on.

Same Design ~ Different Look

Here are a few cards I sent out this year. This was a fun project to complete. I took one template, the same sentiment stamp, a store bought snowflake and the same color scheme and created 8 different cards. They are all cohesive together yet each is individual... just like a snowflake! I like the combination of colors and elegant papers, hope you like them.


Here are just a few close up: