Fun Christmas Cards

I needed a couple simple cards for some neighbors, and I used the fun sketch over at Card Positioning Systems this week as my starting point. For the first one, I made the snowflake from some leftover faux mother-of-pearl paper (that I'd done with a grayish blue ink), and then after I'd cut it out I coated it with my son's favorite Crayola glitter glue. You can never have too much sparkle! I layered it with some paper (impulse buy from the Target dollar spot last week), and tied on a "hope" charm. The finished card is 5 1/2" square.

The second card is smaller - only 4 1/4" - and the colors were chosen by my daughter :) I liberated the hot pink foam circle from her art box, and then embellished it with an edge strip (doodlebug designs), tiny gems, and an actual ornament hanger. This was really fun to do, and I'm thinking that the kids and I will make some more of these for the teachers, friends, etc. I used a Martha Stewart edge punch for the ornament topper (just clipped out a tiny piece) and the turquoise layer. I couldn't make 2 cards in a row without any stamping whatsoever, so I stamped JOY with the Alpha-02 set.

Don't know if I'm going to find any more "creative time" in the weeks ahead - we're hitting the road for Christmas this year, and there's still a lot I need to get done. If I don't make it back to the blog, I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday!!

Getting Lovey-Dovey

I know that Christmas is looming large on the horizon, but Valentine's isn't all that far off, right? Anyway, that's the excuse I'm offering for this card :)

I used this week's layout from Card Patterns - fun layout to combine patterned papers. The images are from smARTworks' Happy Silhouettes and the paper is from Memory Box. Everything is pretty straightforward - I made the card base from dark purple cardstock, which you see right below the ribbon. I really love the sentiment: Forever. For always. No matter what. Definitely going to use that for my hubby's card this year (he won't be receiving this particular one!)

Hope you're having a great week!

Christmas Blessings

Well, things are back to semi-normal around here and I wanted to share this card I made for the Christmas challenge. When I sat down to create something, I wanted to keep it simple so it could be mass-produced, and also flat to minimize mailing costs. In other words: practical for the craziness of the Christmas season :)

I started with the holly label from Addy Keepers Fancy, and then added a greeting from Little Things. I colored in the holly with prismacolor pencils, and then went around the frame with stickles - simple but very pretty! Matted the panel with black, and scored around the edge on the red layer just to add a bit more interest.

Have you been busy making Christmas cards? You have until Dec 22 to post a link over at the smART-Word challenge. Hope you can join in the fun!

December!

I can't believe it's December already - 2009 has been a hectic year for us, and the months have definitely flown by. Between family visiting and sickness I haven't had much stamping time these past couple weeks... and well, even if I *did* have projects to share, we're currently having technical difficulties with our computer so no photos right now. Hope to get those issues resolved in the next couple days, though, and look for fresh inspiration next week.

In the meantime, be sure to swing over to the smART-word challenge for some cute ideas. The word of the month is Christmas, and we'd love to have you create a little something and play along with us!