Cards of Christmas Past

Happy December! Whoa! This Christmas season is already flying by! How many shopping and crafting days do I have left???

As promised, here are all of my Christmas cards since 2004, which is when I started hand-making them. I'm creating this post as a resource to me, but hopefully you will have fun seeing my different designs and family photos over the years.

My friend and Stampin' Up demonstrator would probably agree when I say that I have gone to great lengths to make my cards in past years. As mentioned in my Christmas Card post from last year, I have always designed my cards based on my daughters' Christmas outfits. Many months of planning, Stampin' Up ordering, and crafting have gone into my madness, masterpieces - LOL!

Here we go:

2004

There is a Versamark stamped background,

but it's hard to see in this photo

2004 - Inside

Got really crafty on this one with the fold!

This was to allow for a newsletter.

Again, this was my first year making cards,

so I went all out!

2005

As you can see from this inside, I quickly ditched

the newsletter. It just didn't feel right for me.

I felt too boastful when writing them.

2006

Each of my girls colored this stamped image,

and then I scanned them and copied them for all of my cards.

Half of our recipients got the older daughter's artwork,

and the other half got the other daughter's. Fun!

2006 - Inside

2007

One of my faves . . .

2007 - Inside

2008

2008 - Inside

Notice the new bunny as an addition that year to our family.

In the interest of anti-animal cruelty, the bunny was edited into

the family photo. Who knows what the dogs would do . . 

I shudder at the thought. The bottom reads: "Please note:

No animals were harmed in the making of

this year's family Christmas photo."

2009

First year using the Cricut!

(Accent Essentials for my sentiment frame)

2009 - Inside

And 2010 of course is already on my blog within this post. So there they are! Thank you for looking at my new resource post. This weekend I will be posting Christmas Card 2011. :)

Enjoy your weekend, my fellow crafty friends! 

"Come to the Well" Gift Set for my Sis

Do you ever feel like your "bucket" is depleting? You give and give of yourself to others but all the while not making sure you replenish YOU? Many of us women are guilty of not taking time for ourselves to fill up spiritually, mentally and physically. My dear sister is one of them, and she celebrates a big milestone birthday today. In honor of this day of celebrating her, I compiled a gift to "fill her bucket." And I literally filled a bucket!

My sister and I attended a Christian concert with a couple of friends last month where Casting Crowns was the headliner band. It was amazing!

Casting Crowns' lead singer, Mark Hall, wrote a book called The Well, and also Casting Crowns' latest CD is called Come to the Well. It seemed fitting for me to assemble a birthday gift for my sister with these great bucket fillers! Jesus definitely invites us to come to the well and replenish.

And for the first time ever, I used a card sketch to design my card. I knew I wanted to use the bucket from the Country Life Cricut cartridge, but CardPatterns' current sketch challenge # 143 helped me put the card together. I stayed with the colors of the book, the CD, and the Bath & Body Works festive "VanillaTini" products that I also bought my sister. I love when a color scheme emerges out of a gift- it just pulls it all together!

Here is the card:

And . . . The goods!

 Chocolate definitely fills a bucket-

Chocolate Twizzlers and Charleston Chews

are 2 of my sister's faves!

A different angle to see the rest of the bible verse,

"The JOY of the LORD is your strength" Nehemiah 8:10

Now it's all assembled in the bucket . . .

And wrapped up for giving!

Card Supplies:

• Cricut Country Life cartridge for bucket cut from silver cardstock scrap
•  Stampin' Up Sage Shadow (retired) cardstock for card base - cut to fit a business sized envelope
• Stampin' Up Very Vanilla cardstock
• Stampin' Up scallop edge punch
• Hero Arts alphabet set for "Fill up." on front
• Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip ink
• Graphite Light ATT font
• Ribbon from Fall Fun spool found in Target's dollar section last year
• Crystal blue skittles for raindrops

Bucket supplies:

• Cricut Stone Script cartridge for bible verse welded on my Gypsy
• Cricut transfer paper (the letters were pretty little and frail, so this was VERY helpful)
• Brown vinyl purchased from Expressionsvinyl.com  
• Ivory metal bucket/pail from Joann in planter section
• Cellophane basket wrap
• Raffia

This gift was really fun to put together because it combined things I enjoy and wanted to give, it had a theme, the colors all worked together to create a natural feel, I was able to personalize it, and it all was meaningful to my sister. Insert big grin here. :)

Next, I will do a post of Christmas cards past, and then I will post this year's card. Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderfully crafty week!

Rock Princess Cupcake Card and Gift Bag

We interrupt this holiday season's craft-making with a breaking need for a birthday card and gift bag!

Yes, my oldest daughter was invited to a birthday party today so I was in need of a birthday card and gift bag. I do have both on hand, but noooo, I wanted to match my gift (Bath & Body Works cupcake slipper socks, a body mist, a body butter and a lip gloss all in a pink theme) so I had to make it difficult on myself and create them! I'm such a nut. It was a nice little break from my Christmas cards, though.

Here they are:

Gift  bag

Close up of cupcake on bag

Card front

Card inside

Supplies:

• Cricut Rock Princess cartridge for the cupcake (welded on my Gypsy to create card)
• Stampin' Up Real Red cardstock
• Scraps of white, pink and brown cardstock from my stash
• "Happy Birthday" from Scrappy Mom's Simple Sentiments stamp set
• "Sweet Birthday Wishes" from Scrappy Moms' Sweet Somethings stamp set
• Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip ink
• Stickles in Waterfall, Fruit Punch, Xmas Red, Diamond and Cinnamon
• EK Success foam dots to pop cupcake up on gift bag

Again, this was a fun little break from my holiday crafting. And I purposely set out to use a cupcake other than from the Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge. I liked the one on Rock Princess, but decided to skip the crossbones the handbook shows with it.

I am happy to report that all of my Christmas cards are DONE! I stayed up until 2 am last night doing them, but they are DONE. I just need to stuff them in the envelopes and seal them - YES! I will wait to post them until after they are mailed out, though, so that my recipients receive them first. They get mailed the day before Thanksgiving.

This coming week I am off from work - Woohoo! This is the first week since Spring Break that I will have a whole week off. I'm so excited! I do need to stop into my office on Tuesday to complete a task that was unavoidable, but that's nothing compared to having to sit all day at my desk. Instead I will have my 1 1/2 year old cousins over for a visit (for the first couple days of vacation anyway). Talk about trading in my desk time for some physical activity- LOL! I'm looking forward to it, though. I'm hoping to torment them with tons of photos. Maybe I can even get some cute ones that their mom can use as her Christmas photo of them. Wish me luck!

I'm not sure if I'll get to post before Thanksgiving, so have a blessed day with your family and friends! And also, Happy Black Friday Shopping!!! :)

Naughty Or Nice?

Ah, that is the question so far for my Christmas season. That's because I've decided to go with a Santa theme for my Christmas cards this year (so not like me), which I've been working on feverishly. You can learn all about my extreme madness when it comes to Christmas cards in my last year's card post HERE.

So while I've been working on my Santa-themed Christmas cards, I thought I'd jump in Scrappy Mom's fun little challenge, to make a 3D item with twine or a button, and keep with my Santa theme!

Here it is:

Got these little holiday lotions for $1 each

at Bath & Body Works!



 Supplies:

• Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge- tote on p23 cut at Fit to Page, buckle on p23 cut at 1.25", and tag from p50 cut at 2" (had enough of me making stuff with this cartridge yet???)
• Red DCWV cardstock
• Black 12x12 cardstock strip from a scrap cut at .75" plus tag mat from scraps
• White cardstock scrap for tag
• Golden Pearl Core'dinations cardstock from JoAnn (individual sheets sold)
• Stampin' Up Sticky Strip (to hold box strongly together)
• White feather trim cut by the yard at Joann
• "Naughty or Nice?" sentiment from Scrappy Moms' Winter Wishes set
• Black Versa Ink
• Ranger clear embossing powder
• Marvy-Uchida embossing gun
• Maraschino Cherry baker's twine purchased from Scrappy Moms

This little gift holder was so easy to make! I can see myself making a bunch of these this Christmas season. It holds the little lotions perfectly, and I can even add in a gift card! So fun!

 

Thanks for popping by. Have a good week!

Count Your Blessings Thanksgiving Card

Hi fellow crafters! Hope you're having a great weekend!

As promised, here are my Thanksgiving cards I made for this year and am sending to close family and friends:

2 colors - Stampin' Up's

Purely Pomegranate and Really Rust

This photo is my fave

Inside of Really Rust card

 Purely Pomegranate

Inside of Purely Pomegranate

Supplies:

• Pretty photos of my daughters in the Fall leaves :)
• Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge for leaves
• Close to My Heart Celebrations maple leaf stamp (from Art Philosophy bundle)
• "Count Your Blessings" stamp from Scrappy Moms' The Charmed Life set
• Stampin' Up Purely Pomegranate ink (previous In Color)
• Stampin' Up Really Rust Ink (retired I think?)
• My Craft Spot Pumpkin Spice and Acorn Crinkle ribbons
• The Paper Company cardstock in kraft and textured brown from JoAnn
• Stampin' Up ticket corner punch (on photo)
• Monotype Corsiva font (preloaded on Windows)

A while back I emailed Kimberly of My Craft Spot to see if she had a plum colored crinkle ribbon. She was so sweet! She contacted me right away, she sent samples out, and I ordered a very nice looking plum. I was thinking that it would match my younger daughter's shirt. But after taking the photos, printing them, and then finally having them in hand, I realized the plum was not the true color of my daughter's shirt. It actually matches the Stampin' Up color, Razzleberry that I used on last year's Thanksgiving cards. Ugh! I do appreciate Kimberly making that plum ribbon for me, though, and will definitely put it to good use on another project.

 

Another thing I discovered upon having the photo prints in hand was that the one photo had some orange leaves in the background. So, luckily when I ordered the plum ribbon from My Craft Spot, I also ordered the Fall Collection, which included 4 beautiful colors: Pumpkin Spice, Golden Harvest, Acorn and Maple Leaf.  This allowed me to play around with the colors and still be able to use Kimberly's beautiful ribbon!

 

I also have to mention that I am LOVING having stamps that coordinate with Cricut cuts!! I don't mean to be an enabler, but if you like stamping and are Cricut-obsessed like me, then you might have a little fun with the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy bundle. There are some great stamps included like the leaf I used on the card. Check Melanie's Brown's blog, Courtney Lane Designs if you want more information on it. I have a couple more projects coming up that I will be utilizing this great cartridge. 

 

I am entering my Thanksgiving cards into My Craft Spot's "Gobble 'Til You Wobble" challenge to make a Thanksgiving project.

 

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!