A Bunch of Christmas Cards!

Miss me? My final Storytelling class and story performance went well yesterday! I told my bee phobia story, complete with buzzing sound effects! I shared a few bee incidents & described the hair salon I use; it just remodeled & changed its name to Hair Hive (ouch). People got a laugh from it! I'm glad the class is over, since I have so many other things going on, but I'll miss my classmates. Some of them plan to stay in touch, though, so that'll be nice.

On to cards - I have Wednesday's, Thursday's and today's HeroFest Holiday Cheer Card Drive cards to share, plus some I made for my own stash while I was at it. **Warning - photo heavy post ahead!** First - Wednesday's cards, using some fun new Tim Holtz Christmas stuff I got at JoAnn's on Monday:

Supplies: Paper - Park Lane A2 card;

Poptone Black Licorice;

Tim Holtz Worn Wallpaper Scraps

Other - Tim Holtz Christmas Label Stickers;

Hero Arts Clear Glitter Lacquer

I embellished the village here and there (tree, rooftops) with some glitter lacquer - so pretty in real life! Next - a slimline card for my own stash using more TH Wallpaper (the poinsettias are included in the package!). I added some gold pearls to the flowers as well as some glitter lacquer:

For Thursday, I made a card for my own stash that would work at the November Christmas Kickstart Challenge where Jo and her Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers are doing cards with trees. I still had the embossing folder out that I used for Jo & Gail's October Let's Squash It! Challenge card so used it again.

Supplies: Paper - Spellbinders A2 card; Paper Studio vellum & Holiday;

Poptone Black Licorice; Hero Arts Glitter Basics

Dies - Hero Arts Fir Trees Infinity Dies 

A Jillian Vance Design Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop Set

Embossing Folder - Sizzix Christmas Tree Pattern

Other - Tim Holtz Christmas Label Stickers

While I was at it, I embossed another panel & made a different version for the card drive, this time adding an Authentique stag ephemera piece that I double matted. I glittered the antlers - very quick and easy!

Today for the card drive I played with a fave Hero Arts Paper Layering Santa Tag die (retired). I cut him from Hero Arts Handmade Watercolor paper and watercolored with the Altenew 24 pan set (still sitting there from my October Diva cards). I used more of the TH wallpaper and another label sticker.

I die cut and watercolored a second Santa for my own stash. But when I went to flatten out those little bumps made by the die holes, he stuck to the Vagabound plate and ripped. Oh well. Moving on... I used a new Hero Arts stamp set Wishing You Tree. You may recall I used a leaf die from the coordinating die set HERE but hadn't used the stamps. I stamped and embossed two - one on plum and one on watercolor (saved for future). I rubbed some unicorn ink to lighten up the plum card and it dulled my embossing, despite wiping and reheating the ep. Oh well... I still like it! Added some sparkle lacquer to the star & a sentiment. Another quick and easy one. The ombre card base is from a pack of heavyweight  watercolor print paper I found at Hobby Lobby - love it!!

I'm adding my tree card to Darnell's November NBUS Challenge since my stamp is new, and also to Stay Crafty with a Blog Named Hero's October Challenge Merry Everything. They only allow one card per post; I supposed I could upload them all to my Flickr account and share from there but I'm too lazy!

I'm very excited to be doing the Hero Arts Holiday Stamp Along this weekend! I'll be busy creating on Saturday and Sunday but hope to be able to post those cards in future.

Thanks for hanging in there for this long post! Happy crafting!!