Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round ~ M, N, O is for ...

 Hello and welcome to this month's challenge at Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Our challenge this month is M, N, O is for ...

M is for ... Manger, Mary, Mistletoe

N is for ... North Pole, Nativity, Nutcracker

O is for ... Ornaments, One Horse Open Sleigh, O Holy Night

If you have been following my blog, then you know that I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to make a card for each letter, and so far so good! I did make 3 cards for this challenge 😀

Card no. 1 - M is for Moose

I don't have details about this gorgeous die or the stitching pattern as this was taken from a card kit that I received as a gift from The Netherlands.  The only thing I did to it was the stitching and adhered the punched gold stars.  Then instead of the image it came with, I used a Christmas Moose layered image from  Hearty Crafts 3D Toppers Christmas Mooses collection.

I used foam squares to adhere each layer to each other. There are 3 layers in total. I love the dimension it adds to the card and since I used the 1 mm foam squares, it doesn't add too much bulk.

On the inside, I used the Merry Christmas w/Shadow die from Karen Burniston and added a few left over gold stars.  These stars were cut using a border punch from Martha Stewart.

* * *

Card no. 2 - N is for Nutcracker

This card is from the Stitch & Do Kit No. 159.

It came with a cutting sheet with various Nutcracker images.  I chose this one.  There are 3 layers to this image, even though you can't quite see it from the pic. They are adhered to each other with 1 mm foam squares from Hunkydory.

The greeting on the inside is from the Christmas Greetings stamp set from Great Impressions stamps.

Card no. 3 - O is for Ornament

I used the following crafty goodies to create this card:

Marianne Design - Merry Snowmen cutting sheet

Marianne Design - Open Christmas Bauble die set

Marianne Design - Twigs

I added a sprinkling of tiny gold stars to make it a little more festive 😊

On the inside I used a stamp from the 

Simon Says Stamps - Nutty & Bright stamp set

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Now it's your turn to make a Christmas project,  and to come play along with us.  You have till the end of the month to link your project to our blog at  Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Hugs,

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round ~ K, L is for ...

  Hello and welcome to this month's challenge at Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Our challenge this month is K, L is for ...

K is for ... Kris Kringle, Kings, Kiss Under the Mistletoe 

L is for ... Letter to Santa, Lanterns, Lights

My two cards this month are:

K is for Kittens

So this is a new type of card making for me.  Not so long ago I came across Maremi's Small Art by Marta Lapkowska and loved it.  So, of course I had to get a few things to try it out for myself 😀  I got the Essentials Backgrounds - Whispers of Christmas and Bits & Bobs - Christmas Edition.

To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I made this card, but I'm not exactly thrilled with it.  Plus it took me a long time to fussy cut all the bits and bobs.  It also took me a long time to decide what went together with what ... so yes! I struggled to put everything together just right so it would look semi-decent.  After seeing so many gorgeous creations, I realized that it is definitely a "me" thing.  I'm going to give it another try soon-ish and see how that goes.  I'll let you know!

But now a little bit more about this card.  All the elements are from the Bits & Bobs book.  I fussy cut what I wanted to put together and then it was a matter of using 1mm and 2 mm foam squares to add all the different layers.  I think I need lots of practice in fussy cutting, but who has the time or patience to cut out all those fine hairs on the cats????  Still, I think I could have made a better job of it.  Next time I'll try harder for sure, or I'll just look for elements with straight edges 😁

On the inside, I used a cut out from one of the SVGs from Dreaming Tree.  I love the way this comes out and the fact that I can resize it to fit the size of my card.  This card is a 5.25" square card that does not need extra postage when mailing it.

* * *

Card no. 2 - L is for Lantern

As you know, I find stitching on cards very relaxing so after making the card above, I needed something easy and already planned out for me, so out came my Stitch & Do kits.  This card was made using kit #159 by Amy Design.

Doesn't this sweet image just portray peace and joy?  It makes me feel so tranquil looking at it until I look at all the snow - then I just want to head off to a tropical island somewhere!!!  I did have to fussy cut the 3 layers of the image, but that was easy peasy.  I used 1mm foam squares to adhered the different layers together.  This way I get a little dimension but not a lot of bulk which is important when mailing cards overseas.

On the inside, I used a stamp from the Christmas Greetings stamp set from Great Impressions Stamps.  I used copic markers to add a little colour to the lamp post.

Okay friends, this was a very long and chatty post.  I guess you can tell that I'm feeling better 😊 So thanks for stopping by and listening to me.  Now it's your turn to make a Christmas project,  and to come play along with us.  You have till the end of the month to link your project to our blog at  Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

I'm playing along at:

Peace on Earth Christmas Challenges

Hugs,

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round ~ E, F is for ...

  Hello and welcome to this month's challenge at Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Our challenge this month is E, F is for ...

E is for ... Elf, Evergreen, Eggnog

F is for ... Frosty, Fruitcake, Fleece

Continuing with my personal challenge, I made two cards. One with E and one with F.

So for my first card ... E is for Elf.

I used the Hero Arts Peeking Elf die to make this very cute Elf.  Although the outcome is super cute, this is one of those dies that you have to run thru your machine several times, using different colour cardstock each time in order to get the look and colours you want.  And then each time you have to cut apart the section you want in that particular colour only to piece it back together again with the other sections.  I must admit that I find it quite annoying, thus the reason I don't have a lot of these dies 😀 I like the dies with lots of pieces, so I can put a suitable size piece of cardstock over each piece and then cut them all at the same time with one or two passes thru my Gemini.  But that's just me! How do you all feel about it?  Maybe leave me your opinion in a comment?

The background pattern paper is from Hunkydory called Christmas Cuties & Colourful Stripes Duo Design Paper Pad.  Love this paper pad, it has the cutest papers with beautiful imagery and colours.

For the inside sentiment, I used a stamp from Great Impression Stamps called Christmas Greetings.  This card measures 5.5"x 5.5".

And for my second card ... F is for a Fireside Christmas.

Doesn't it look so warm and cozy? I'm pretty sure all I would need would be some hot chocolate and a nice Christmas movie on the TV 😀

To create this Easel Card, I used the Layout Square die from Marianne Design, and one of the images from the Fireside Christmas set that I got from Creative Fabrica. 

Card measures 5.5" x 5.5" when closed.  It  fits in a regular 5.75" square envelope so mailing is not a problem.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Now it's your turn to make a Christmas project,  and to come play along with us.  You have till the end of the month to link your project to our blog at  Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Hugs,

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round ~ Santa Claus is Coming to Town

    Hello and welcome to this month's Christmas challenge at

 Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.  

Our inspiration song for December's challenge is

 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅯 Santa Claus is Coming to Town 𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅯. 

 This means that you can use any verse, phrase or word in the song to create your Christmas project.  Here are the lyrics of this song for your inspiration

~ Santa Claus is Coming to Town ~

You better watch out,

You better not cry,

Better not pout,

I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is comin' to town.

He's making a list

And checking it twice,

Gonna find out

Who's naughty and nice.

Santa Claus is comin' to town.

He sees you when you're sleepin',

He knows when you're awake,

he knows if you've been bad or good,

So be good for goodness sake.

You better watch out,

You better not cry,

Better not pout,

I'm telling you why:

Santa Claus is comin' to town.

I'm making a few more advent cards and thought this one would be perfect for this challenge.

I used the Advent Calendar die from Hunkydory.  The image is from the Advent Calendar Paper Pack.  These are awesome as they include the card fronts, the window reveal backing papers, and matching card inserts. Each paper pack has enough papers to make 12 cards.

Here is a close up.  It's super cute.  A little Advent Calendar in the form of a Christmas card 😊  Using the window reveal sheet behind each card front, makes it so that you can open a little window each day to display a fun and festive image.  I didn't want to open these little windows, but if you want to take a look at another card I made, you can follow this link.  There you will be able to see some of the cute images behind each little window.  Each backing sheet matches the advent card front.

I made this card to be an easel card.  On the matching insert sheet, I stamped a sentiment using a stamp from the Christmas Sayings stamp set from Creative Expressions.  The little stopper for the easel element was cut using punches from StampinUp and the little Merry Christmas greeting is a stamp from the Tiny Tidings stamp set from Cardz TV.

Each image paper is 6" x 6".  I trimmed them down to 5.5" x 5.5" as I wanted a small  gold border around it.  I then adhered it all to a 6" x 6" red card base.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Now it's your turn to make a Christmas project,  and come play along with us.  You have till the end of the month to link your project to our blog at  Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Safe travels to all who will be on the road, rail, air or water!

Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round ~ Gingerbread

  Hello and welcome to this month's Christmas challenge at

 Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round. 

 

Our challenge this month is Gingerbread / Cookies / Candies

Here is our inspiration pic ...

I went with Gingerbread for this challenge and creatd this card.

It was cut using a file from Silhouette. Here are the side views of this card. Love those icicles on the side.

I added a mat on the back to stamp my sentiment, from Great Impressions Stamps,  and write my message.  All bits and pieces were cut using scraps from my scraps drawers.  You'd think that with all the scraps I've been using lately on my cards, that I would see a difference, but truth be told, I don't even see a dent in the piles of scraps I have.  They seem to grow overnight!   Maybe I'll stick some dollar bills in these drawers and see if it works 😂

I resized the card to be about 5" x 7", when flat, so it fits perfectly into an A7 envelope.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Now it's your turn to make a Christmas project, that falls within our challenge theme, and come play along with us.  You have till the end of the month to link your project to our blog at  Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Crafty hugs,

CCAYR ~ Ten Lords a Leaping

 Hello crafting friends and welcome to this month's challenge  at Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.  On our "The 12 days of Christmas" challenges, this month we have Ten Lords a Leaping. 

This is October's inspiration pic.

Our challenge this month is to have Ten of something or For a Male.

For my DT project, I chose the "Ten of Something" for my card.  These are the 10 stars that are part of the embroidery pattern.

List of crafty ingredients used to make this card:

Embroidery Pattern and Layering Image - Stitch & Do Kit No. 183

Stamped Sentiment - Great Impressions Stamps

Wink of Stella Gold Pen - used to colour in stars

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Now it's your turn to make a Christmas project that falls within our challenge theme, and come play along with us.  You have till the end of the month to link your project to our blog at  Christmas Crafts All Year 'Round.

Crafty hugs,

Crafty Gals Corner #245 ~ Christmas in July!

Hello crafting friends and welcome back to another fun challenge

 starting today at Crafty Gals Corner! 

Challenge #245 ~ Christmas in July

 Our sponsor for this challenge is: 

Conie Fong

Prize ~ 3 Single Digis

Conie Fong is a self-taught artist residing in California, USA with her husband, daughter, pet hamster and fishes.  In her early childhood years, she was inspired by every kind of art and crafts.  She loved watching demonstrations by artists on the streets and at festivals and spent most of her free time perusing arts and crafts books in the library, drawing, crafting and experimenting with her art supplies at home.  Conie first started sharing her art with the world by selling ACEO reprints of her ACEO paintings of fairies, mermaids, and kitty art on Ebay in 2010.  She was a full time account manager for a University before becoming a full time mom and part time artist.  She currently enjoys spending time with her family traveling, exploring the outdoors, and designing beautiful, cute, and magical art for craft and coloring lovers. 

*******

For my card, I used the very cute, fun and festive Puurfect Kitties digi, and created a bridge card.  Take a look ...

Crafty supplies used to make this card:

Conie Fong - Purrfect Kitties, String of Lights and Meowy Christmas greeting.

Great Impression Stamps - Two Little Wishes sentiment

Lawn Fawn - Stitched Hillside Borders - for the snowbanks

Silhouette - Trees

Embossilicious - Let it Snow embossing folder 

Glassy accents on all the lights

Copic Markers for colouring the image

Wink of Stella pen to add a little sparkle here and there

 Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I would love to you see you play along with us.  You have until noon, CST, on 8 August 2023, to link your project to our challenge.

Crafty hugs,