Christmas Cards 2009

I've been very, very busy.....and still more to make! I love Christmas!!


Stamped images (c) Close to My Heart.

Christmas Cards Part 1

When it comes to creating Christmas cards I like to start early in the year. I have been making my own cards for about 4 years. This year I started earlier than ever. I don't like to make every card the same, although sometimes I will make 5 or more of the same style. I intend to make around 100 cards this year. I have most of them bases assembled and now I am working on the stamping and embellishing. Yahoo!

I made these cards a couple of weeks ago. Sorry for the 'spring-ish' background paper...it was just something I grabbed...and then I realized it wasn't super Christmas-y...All well....I wanted to post some simple Christmas cards today. I used Jingle paper, a couple of my favorite stamp sets and I played around with some glitter and rhinestones!

Enjoy!







All images are (c) Close to My Heart.

A Holiday Bucket Tree

If you have been reading this blog all week then you might remember me mentioning that I woke up really early on Labor Day weekend and started making stuff....spray painting...Well, I spray painted a bunch of sticks and started making these little Holiday Bucket Trees.

Okay, the buckets came from the dollar bin at Target a year or so ago. I bought 3 black and 3 silver. (You will see the black tomorrow with my Halloween Bucket Tree!) Using my Crop-A-Dile, I embellished the bucket with some eyelets, stuffed some foam in the bottom and stuck some spray painted sticks down inside.

I just happened to have everything I needed to complete 6 bucket trees--laying around the house. The crafting foam I found in my basement, the sticks I got from my yard...I had the spray paint and the netting that you can see around the base of the sticks.


All of the stamped images are CTMH. I used cardstock, glitter rubbons, a MS snowflake punch, Stampin' Up punch, ribbon, Crayola glitter glue, and some craft wire to put these together. I made 3 Christmas Bucket Trees. I might keep one...or give it to my secretary at school...I may give one to my mom...I WILL for sure be giving one away at my Open House this Saturday and I might donate one to a nursing to put at the front desk for the holidays.

A little tip. If you ever decide to make anything like this, craft wire is perfect for hanging the little 'ornaments'. Glitter glue is awesome for adding some sparkle. And glue dots are awesome for attaching the bows. I do not advise trying to tie the bows to the sticks. These were super easy to make and they are SUPER cute! They fall over a little easy so if you make one for yourself, you might want to put it on the mantle where a pet or a child won't knock it over. They stand about 8-12 inches tall when finished. Enjoy!


Also, the color scheme for my 'Holiday Bucket trees' fit in perfectly with Jeannette Lynton's Color me Monday colors for 8/31! I just love the soft green, blue and white with the gorgeous tulip red! I added a bit of blush too! Thanks for reading!

Open House Gift Card Holder

On Saturday September 12th, I am having an Open House to show off some new products in the CTMH Fall/Winter Idea Book. I am super excited to teach everyone how to make a little gift card holder using cardstock, a strip of patterned paper and an envelope. I learned how to make it by watching a video over at the Chic'n'Scratch website.



You basically seal an envelope, cut it in half and then fold the cardstock around it. When you open the flap, you can place a note and a gift card inside. I must admit, these are a little plain for me...I LOVE BLING! But, I decided to keep them simple so that they would be easy to take to some out of town workshops I am teaching over the next few months. They are perfect for beginning stampers because it is one image, NOEL, with some random stamping on the base. For the paper, I am using Jingle...I wish I had more cardstock on hand...the only thing I had in bulk was Ocean and Cranberry...they don't perfectly match, but I am making it work.

So Happy for You Card

A dear friend just had a beautiful baby boy so I sent her this card earlier this week. I love it because it showcases some new CTMH paper, from Jingle and Twitterpated and it also features some cute felt and foam Thickers and Stampin' UP ribbon (Thanks Lisa, I am using the heck out of that stuff!! I love it!)

Jingle Card {one of many more to come}

Just a quick post today for a challenge that I made time for. I really loved the layout of kwerner's Finally Friday card and I decided to add mine to the challenge over at Two Peas.


This paper is from new from CTMH, Jingle. The card base is from DCWV, one of those bulk card base boxes....I am trying to use those up! It is a pretty blue with lots of texture. All other supplies on this card are CTMH!