Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Christmas cards by the hundreds -- literally!

Hello Everyone!  Yep! I've been missing in action since, uh,.... October maybe????  BUT I DO have a few good excuses. :)  I recently organized a huge (well, it felt huge to me, anyways) fund raising event at my kids' school.  I am the new PTO president, as of late last year, and this event was my idea of a fund raiser.  I'll be honest, it was a pretty big leap of faith -- in so many ways!  We had a high quality arts and crafts show in one gym, a Kid Zone in another gym, bake sale to benefit our PTO, food booth for our 8th graders to fund raise with, and raffle fund raiser.  My worst fear was that no one would come to the event, but I'm happy to say the parking lot was packed solid for hours that morning, everyone was smiling from ear to ear, and the feeling of community coming together was simply, incredible.  Our two main goals for the event, was to draw the community together, and raise money for the school -- and we accomplished both!  Woo Hooo!   AND, I am very glad it's over! I have to share a couple of the decorating pictures with you, cause they made my little heart happy! A local wood worker made the palate trees, and I thought they looked so woodsy and natural, which was kind of my decorating theme for the event.  The LED trees made such an awesome little cheery accent for the entry way -- complete with little wooden snowflakes I found at Michaels.  AND, those incredibly cute little reindeer below the trees, were another amazing find I purchased from another local wood worker.  They are most definitely one-of-a-kind reindeer!  Those little red light bulb Rudolf noses! Sweet!



And, now, onto some Christmas card ideas to share with you.  I did my Christmas card classes differently this year -- Christmas card buffets.  There were 10 card choices to choose from, and folks could choose to make sets of 8 or 16 cards.  I think it helped make the classes run more smoothly, as there was less waiting for one particular card kit.  I had 24 folks attend between the three classes I did, and prepped around 400 cards, I think.  Lots of fun was had by all!  Here is the line up of designs!  I'd love to hear which ones are YOUR favorites.


 These little gingerbread peeps on a cookie sheet, was not my idea -- I saw it on Pinterest, and thought it was so incredibly cute! so had to share.  That patterned paper is the Candy Cane Lane DSP.  It is some of the prettiest Christmas paper I have worked with in a while.  Beautiful patterns, in some non-traditional colors -- like Crumb Cake and Espresso.



 This little flurries card, is made with the Snow Flurries punch and matching stamp set.  I also used the Fancy Frost Specialty paper for the background.  This paper has a raised pattern on it that isn't glossy as some of our other papers like this have been -- just a beautiful, raised pattern in heavy wt white.  Colors used: Island Indigo and Pool Party.



 The cable knit embossing folder, has made quite a sensation, as it is 3-D.  The dimension of your paper looks different with this folder, than it would with a regular embossing folder.  Also used on this card, is the bow from the Holly Berry Builder punch which happens to be on sale this week! and the sentiment is from the Christmas Pines set which is also on sale till the end of November.

 I always try and throw in a non-traditional color combo card, and this was the one for this year.  I ended up altering the card from this photo, as it needed some sprucing up. :)  I added a strip of gold glitter paper and a gold star which made it much prettier than this photo shows.



 My stash of washi tape has gotten out of control, so I told myself I may NOT buy anymore until I use up some of what I have, so this little tree card was the perfect thing.  I had strips of white card stock -- 2x4 1/4" and we added our strips of washi tape to the strip, and then die cut it with the tree from Santa's Sleigh.  I simply love that die set!  The sleigh is kind of fiddly, but the end result is really beautiful!  Colors used: retired Lost Lagoon, silver glimmer paper, heavy weight white.

 This little reindeer and wreath is also from the Santa's Sleigh bundle.  I guess I just really like this set, as I used it for three of the cards in the class!  Other products used: Woodland embossing folder, tree builder punch, silver glimmer paper.

 This card was by far the favorite choice all the way around.  I happened to have a bunch of Mossy Meadow card stock on hand, so I paired that with Pear Pizzazz card stock.  The Christmas background stamp - Merry Medley -- makes the perfect background to layer the pine cones and greenery using the peaceful pines thinlets.  The pine cones are cut from our new copper foil sheets -- simply a must have in my book. One nice thing I found about these dies, is that I could cut several pieces with one pass through the Big Shot, so it didn't take ages to cut the pieces you need if you were strategic in how you layered them onto your plate.

 Another non-traditional color scheme, using Sweet Sugarplum and the retired Blackberry Bliss.  I LOVE the star of light bundle featured here.  Such and elegant, different set than we've had in a long time.  Simply elegant and beautiful!

 I'm generally not a big Santa fan, but I thought this die -- detailed Santa -- was so unique, I just had to get it.  I think you could use those swirls at the bottom for waves on an ocean card or layout, or drifts of snow, or so many other things!

 Here is the sleigh from the Santa's Sleigh thinlets.  It is cut in two parts -- the sleigh base and the top piece which I cut from red foil paper.  You then glue the two parts together to make the completed sleigh. Of course, the Dazzling Diamons glimmer paper makes the snow bank look beautiful!

Whew! I think that's it for today!  Be sure to check out the amazing online extravaganza happening right now!  Just click on my website and shop away!  There is a big list of stamps on sale, as well as the extravaganza so be sure to check out both!

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you!