Merry Everything and a Happy Always

After a card-making drought over the past year, I've recently become obsessed with making as many cards as possible with the leftovers from my Spellbinders Santa Lane Christmas card kit. My friend Stephanie and I already made 16 cards each and I made 3 more in the past two days. And there's STILL a ton of stuff leftover! 

For today's card I used the fun May Sketch Challenge by Tracy at 52 Christmas Card Throwdown. 

I wasn't sure if I could cut a good triangle and then I remembered that I bought a set of triangle dies a few years ago but never opened the package. It has a bunch of different triangle sizes and shapes (well, y'know they're all triangle shaped but some are long, some wide, etc.). I love it when I figure out I have just what I need! The sentiment and the cups are from the card kit and the papers are from Echo Park. This is an awesome sketch to use with coordinating papers so I will probably use it again.

Ciao!

A whole lotta gold

Clearly I'll never make it as a blogger. It's been more than 2 years. Whatever. 

Today I made a card using leftover bits from a card-making kit. My inspiration is from Christmas Crafts All Year Round, where the May theme is Five Golden Rings (I cannot get 12 days of Christmas out of my head, thank you very much). The challenge is to make a card or craft featuring 5 of something or a lot of gold. I went with a LOT of gold. 

Thanks to the Design Team for keeping this challenge going!

Dreaming of a green Christmas...

Playing along with two challenges, the Jingle Belles Holly & Ivy challenge, to make a card featuring foliage and the Christmas Kickstart Green Christmas challenge. I pulled out a a Spellbinders poinsettia die that I've barely used and green patterned papers from a coordinating set. The green papers have an olive hue and I love non-traditional colors on Christmas cards so this is right up my alley. 
 

Merry Sketchmas

I need to get some Christmas cards completed and always love a sketch because it establishes some boundaries. The Jingle Belles challenge is to make a card using Stephanie's sketch below.

For the background I used a leftover page that I made for Wanderlust 2021, a mixed media art journaling course. The paper is watercolor paint on a paper bag, with salt sprinkled on the wet page. It was really fun to see how the pages turned out and I would definitely use this technique again. The rest are scraps of Christmas patterned paper and a gift tag from Michaels. 

 

Hello Friend

 

This weekend I made a card for the Shopping our Stash I need a cup of coffee challenge. I've had this Tim Holtz Coffee Time stamp, die and embossing folder for years but I think I've only used it once. So it was time to put it to use. Pretty much copied the version on the back of the package so it's not very original but I like it.

Hello Sugar

I don't make many Christmas cards for children because, sadly, most of my friends are grown-ups. But I found an organization that solicits handmade cards and bookmarks for hospitalized children throughout the world so this year I am planning to make a bunch. I've already made about a dozen bookmarks. 

The inspiration for this card comes from the Winter Wonderland Christmas Sweet Treats prompt and the Jingle Belles Inchies prompt to make a card featuring one inch or two inch squares or whatever size or shape (it's pretty much a free-for-all).  

Here's the front of my card. 

And I decided to decorate the back of the card with a fun page from the coordinated papers.

I am also submitting to CraftyHazelnuts Christmas Challenge CHNC 526, anything goes, as long as it's Christmas and CraftyHazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge January 2021.

What does Ombre even mean?

OK, I know Ombre means "shaded" because I am totally fluent in French. Or maybe I looked it up on Wikipedia. I forget. Anyhoo, second card for the Jingle Belles Something Old, Something New challenge. The stamp is from the Simon Says Stamp Abstract Holidays from preferred travel buddy Stephanie. I finally broke out the Hero Arts Ombre inks I bought on sale at least a year ago but didn't even take them out of the wrap until last week. Took a little practice to figure out the little cha-cha movement to blend them but now I'm a fan.