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Thanks for visiting my blog. As the title suggests, I love to scrapbook, stamp, and sing! I will share cards and scrapbook pages I create, as well as information about my music - Barbershop harmony.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Christmas cards - in January??!

Belated Happy New Year everyone!  I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions but last year I made a plan with my friend Heather to make 2 Christmas cards per month so it wouldn't be such a time crunch in December.  Well, I got behind right away but then I caught up and even exceeded my goal.  Still, I ended up sending a few Hallmark cards in 2014.  So this year, I decided to up my "quota" to 4 cards per month.

I'm happy to report that over the last week I have made 9, count 'em NINE, Christmas cards.  So, I'm very proud of this start to my 2015 Christmas collection.  Besides those cards, I also made 6 birthday cards, an anniversary card, and a sympathy card. Oh, and we had a Scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr group and I made a card there too - see it here, if you're interested.

So here are my Christmas cards - sorry in advance for the long post!  To make up the 9, I did some similar cards to a few of these.  This first pair is an anniversary card and a Christmas card using the same Christmas set - Peace Joy Love - by Lawn Fawn.  To be honest, these were the cards that kicked off my Christmas card project.  I had this darling Lawn Fawn set that I'd never used and when I was looking to make an anniversary card for my aunt and uncle, I zeroed in on the Love image.  How perfect for an anniversary with those two cute birds, I thought!  Since I had the set out, I decided to do a Christmas card too (and made a second, slightly different version of it too - not photographed).

Two cards one set

This next trio of cards uses papers from Basic Grey's Evergreen 6x6 pad - love, love, love this paper!  One of the sheets has HOLLY and JOLLY all over it.  The first thing I did was cut out some of the Js, Os, and Ys to make JOY.  After I did that a couple of times, I decided to use the whole words Holly and Jolly on a card.  The & was cut on my Silhouette.  I made a second one of the card on the upper left - had a lot of fun with that one - the birdie papers are so colorful!

3 Cards Evergreen Papers

I was home sick on Wednesday and after sleeping most of the day away, I had enough energy to play with a new Tim Holtz Festive stencil.  I used Distress markers on a piece of soft yellow patterned paper from Evergreen.  I trimmed the panel and cut it in two pieces so I could make two cards.  I stamped each one with a fun background by Hero Arts called Winter Sparkle.

Stencil Merry Christmas

Papers here were also from Evergreen and the background stamp used (and in the top two cards of the trio above) is called Notebook Paper from Hero Arts.  Have used that stamp in many cards this month - love it!  Hard to see in the photo, but I brushed Wink of Stella on the pine needles in my stenciled piece.

Finally, I made this doggy card this morning.  I bought this fun Inky Antics clear set last year and meant to make a 2014 Christmas card for a dog-loving friend.  Well, I didn't get it done for 2014 but now I'm ready for 2015!  The background stamp on this one is another fave from Hero Arts - the Envelope Liner Background.  Colored the doggy with Copics; the snowflake sequins are from Lawn Fawn.

Doggie Singing

So, that's my start on 2015 Christmas cards!  I'm so  impressed with myself - LOL.  What's your plan for getting your Christmas cards done?  Whatever it is, have fun with it and thanks for stopping!!

6 comments:

joy said...

Hi, Linda! I am VERY impressed that you made nine Christmas cards already. I love each one; the Tim Holtz stencil is really a beauty!

I am kinda' playing along with some Christmas challenges this month and have made two! I am hoping to come up with a design somewhere along the way to mass produce. My daughter wants me to make cards for her to send, too, so my goal is to have them all done very early this year.

Pajalu said...

Hi Linda,

Wow what gorgeous cards. I bet by the end of this year you will have enough Christmas cards. I think I need to do something similar.

Lin said...

Well done, and a fantastic start to next Chriwstmas! My favorite is the Joy card with the pretty bird paper!

Dawn T said...

my goodness you have been a busy beaver. Delightful Christmas cards.

stampingandstitching said...

Wow Linda, well done, you are really on a card making roll this month - I'm so impressed too!! Your Christmas cards are fantastic, love all of them! I have to tell you the Bark the Herald Angels Sing one gave me a good giggle - it's adorable! Your aunt and uncle's card is so sweet and I love the way you've use the set in two completely different and creative ways.

So far this month I've made the sum total of ahem....0 Christmas cards :)

Sally said...

Wow Linda, you really are getting ahead of the game for next year! Lucky recipients of each of your beautiful cards. Hope all is well with you and that the new year is a blessed one for you!