FINAL CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGNS

I got inspired by a beginner Cricut class I took at the local scrapbook store to try my hand at using my Cricut to make the final batch of Christmas cards.  It was fun and it was easy to use.  The first card I made was actually an adaptation of a card shown in the manual that came with the Cricut cartridge Winter Woodlands.  I changed the size of the card and had to make a number of construction changes due to the card size change. It is the card on the left with the reindeer.  It was fun to do but too time consuming with all the detail gluing of the Seasons Greetings sentiment. The word "greetings" is in three pieces.  I tried using my Xyron but it left all sorts of little adhesive pieces in the narrow spaces.  So I only made a few of these and went on to try another design that would be simpler to produce.   The second card had more steps, but was actually easier. The only detailed gluing was the pine branch and it was all one piece.  I got to play with lots of toys making this card.  The Cricut cartridge used for it was Winter Frolic.  I used it for the ornament and the branch.  Then I also got to use my Cuttlebug and an embossing folder on the background of the card.  I use a folder that was made up of all different snowflakes.  I also used a Nestabilities label die to cut out the Merry Christmas sentiment. Lots of fun and the card went together quickly.  Oh...I also got to do some easy embossing. The ornament was to be cut in two pieces if you wanted a hanger of a different color than the ornament itself. I didn't want to do that becasue it meant more little detail gluing of the hanger cut over top of the ornament.  Instead I pressed the hanger portion of the ornament onto my silver ink pad and then embossed that with silver embossing powder.  They really look like metal hangers this way and it was very easy to do. 

Now I declare myself finished making Christmas cards.  I still have some writing and mailing to do but at least they are all made! 

QUICK AND EASY CHRISTMAS CARDS

As promised yesterday here is a photo of the quick and easy Christmas cards I made.  I used my Cuttlebug and my new Tim Holtz Christmas embossing folder.  The card stock I used was core'dinations.  It is a cardstock that is one color on the outside and a different color on the inside, or in the core.  By using this cardstock I could add interest to a very simple card through lightly sanding the embossing which reveals the lighter core color.
Two of the cards shown here have embroidered embellishments (the snowman and a snowflake) that I salvaged from a Christmas basket liner that was being thrown away.   A third card has a dove and olive branch punched out of card stock and then covered in Dazzel Versamark ink.  I used Frost.  The final card is simple the embossed words "Seasons Greetings" colored with a glittery Gelly Roll pen.
I made a bout a dozen of these simple cards and then boredom set in. So off to design some different quick and easy cards.  This time using my Cricut and some of the Christmas themed cartridges I have.  Those are to be shown in a later post so stay tuned.  Then I think I  am done with this years Christmas card making and it will be on to other things crafty.

ONE STAMP THREE CARDS!

It is less than three weeks to Christmas and I am deep into making, signing, and mailing out Christmas cards. I am having more fun doing it this year than I have had in a very long time.  Last year I mailed out very few.  This year...well...suffice it to say I think I am doing my part to keep the US Postal Service out of bankruptcy! 

I had some cards left that I made in past years, and I had the few Christmas cards I made at the stamp camp several weeks ago.  I've found a scrapbooking shop here in The Villages that carries some rubber stamps its called She Scrapbooks.  I found a really cute snowman stamp when I was in there the other day and I used it to make a lot of my Christmas cards.  Being that I get easily bored I can not bring myself to make all my cards the same.  So here are three different designs I came up with using the one stamp. 

I also found a package that had 4 different Christmas embossing folders from Tim Holtz.  I used two of them on these cards.  One is the full card background on the red card with the snowman in the lacy oval die cutout which was made with a Nestability die. The other is a strip embossing of snowflakes which I than colored over using a GellyRoll glitter pen.

On all three of the cards I added a  hat (the snowman stamp is a bare headed snowman) that I had in another Christmas stamp set.  The hats were colored and cut out and then placed on the snowman's head with a Stampin' Up Dimensional.

These were all fun cards to make and I did four of each style, but they were way too time consuming to make as many as I needed.  There fore I needed a much simpler design.  Watch for it tomorrow.