Change of plans

I spent days trying to do a brooding, photo inspired winter scene card that featured embossed bare trees, masking,  a  fawn and other arty stuff. I could not get the deer stamp to work no matter what -- different inks, different papers, no masking, I even used a fine-grit sandpaper on it.  I gave up and made this instead.

The sweet kitties are from From the Heart Digis and the card also uses the current sketch from the From the Heart blog, I {heart} Sketches.  The kitties are colored in pencils with the sentiment done in Lipstick Red.

I am entering these Challenges:

I {heart} sketches #136 -- sketch
Craftyhazlenut's Christmas Challenge #265 -- use a sentiment
Craftyhazlenut's Christmas Challenge Extra -- anything Christmas
Rudolph Days -- Christmas
Addicted to Stamps and More #178 -- holiday
Craftyhazlenut's Patterened Paper Challenge  -- use designer paper
Crafty Sentiments -- anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #218 -- Anything goes

Pun fun

Craftyhazelnut's Christmas challenge this week is "The Nativity."  I do have a Bethlehem stamp, but I decided to go a non-traditional route, using the With Wondering Awe set from The Alley Way. If there were shepherds, there were sheep, so here they are.
The star outline is embossed on navy blue card stock, and I filled the interior with a white Wink of Stella brush.  The sheep are fussy-cut and popped up, and the sentiment is on a fishtail banner.

I'm entering these challenges:
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #252 - the Nativity
The Alley Way Stamps -- October link up
Rudolph Challenge for October -- anything Christmas
Time Out Challenge -- Christmas with the option of using pink
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra Challenge -- anything Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #207 -- anything goes

All that Glitters

I pulled out two different glitter EPs for this card, Pirate's Gold and Winter Wonderland.  The card really has a lot of sparkle in real life.
The stamps and die are from Prickly Pear. The center of the ornament is a snowflake shape so I carried the snowflake theme through with the dp and snowflake embellishment.
I've seen people using multiple rows of twine all pushed together, and I like the effect, so I used gold cording over gold washi tape to mimic the look.

The card is for these challenges:
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #243 -- use gold
Holly Jolly Christmas #54 Snowflakes and Sparkle
Rudolph Days August -- anything Christmas
Die-Cut Divas August -- favorite holiday
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra Challenge -- anything Christmas

Less than 20 minutes

Hazel's challenge this week was to make a  Christmas card in 20 minutes or less. Since that's about how much time I have to devote to craftubf right now, it worked perfectly for me.  I upcycled these this frosty, glittery tree scene by matting it on a darker blue and added a sentiment in Night of Navy.  I was done with time to spare, and I have an entry for April Rudolph Days, too.

these are the challenges:
Rudolph Days April -- christmas
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #226 -- 20 minutes or less
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Extra for April -- anything Christmas

March Rudolph Days

Check the calendar. It's already March 25; another month almost gone and another Rudolph Days challenge here.

I got this cute little stamp called Little Carolers by The Artful Stamper at the company's booth at the Stamp show at the end of January.  This is the first time I've used it, so this qualifies for Darnell's "never-before-used schtuff" challenge, also referred to as NBUS. The sketch is the current one at Sketch Saturday.

The image is colored with pencils, and the edges of the top panel are specked with distress ink. The brown strip is embossed with the Cuttlebug folder that shows a musical score, then sanded down to reveal the white core. I got the cute little musical notes die at the same stamp show I got the carolers.

I'm entering these challenges:
Sketch Saturday: Sketch 353
Rudolph Days March -- Christmas card
Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge #221--Christmas  singing
NBUS#4 -- Stamp never used before
Crafty Sentiments -- Inspired by a song (Deck the Halls)

Wrapped up in sparkle

I used this image for a Christmas card once before, but I thought it would work well with these evergreen tree die-cuts I got as an RAK. It seemed like a good project to start the Christmas card stash for 2015.

The stamp is from Clear Art Stamps, colored in pencils.  I added superfine white glitter to the trees on the image as well as to the die-cut trees.  The bigger one is popped up in the foreground and adds some dimension that isn't showing well on my photo.

This is my entry for this year's first round of Rudolph Days, which has moved to Scrappymo's blog for 2015.

I'm playing in these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge -- winter stamping
The Paper Shelter #187 -- all wrapped up  (the woman is wrapped up in quite a coat)
Rudolph Days, Jan 2015 -- Christmas
Holly Jolly Christmas -- Lots of Sparkle
Crazyhazelnut's Christmas Extra -- anything Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #167 -- anything goes

Caring Hearts cards

I spent the last month working as hard as any of Santa's elves making cards for Vera Yates' Caring Hearts card drive. She collects cards for senior citizens in nursing homes, and had a goal of 7,000 cards this year.  I managed to make about 60. (Vera needs to receive cards for this year by 28 November, but keep it in mind for next year.)

 This is a CAS design I used for maybe 15 or 20 cards. Each one was slightly different, as I used snippets of different paper to cut the ornament; I also had some pretty ornament stickers I used on a few.

This was an easy design to mass produce. I used a Prickly Pear die for the ornament. The pine branch stamp is from the same set. I stamped it twice, didn't even bother to re-ink -- that gave me a little variation and depth on the branch.

It's fun to see how different papers for the ornament change the look. I like the striped paper -- it reminds me of the striped glass ornaments we had when I was a kid.

I'm showing two cards for the last Rudolph Challenge of the year. The card is for these challenges:

Rudolph Day Challenge November -- two cards
Crafting for all Seasons #91 -- Tis the Season
Creative Inspiration #291 -- Seasons Greetings
CHNC#203 -- getting ready for Christmas
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday -- Anything goes
Word Art Wednesday #160 -- Anything Goes
Pixie's Snippet Playground #152 -- snippets.

Look what I found

I keep most of my Christmas card supplies in one drawer, so stuff can get buried. While digging through it, I came across a sheet of fairly large stickers and decided to see how they would look as the featured on a card. Framing them on a circle or oval seemed a good way to make them seem like "featured art," so that's one I did.  I also added a touch of sparkle to each, as well as ribbon or twine and a sentiment.
What do you think?
The bear is perfect for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #200 -- If you want to get ahead, get a hat (something with a head and a hat on it,) as well as for Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Extra (anything Christmas).
With a pair of cards, I can also enter Sarn's Rudolph Day challenge.

On the production line

When I first started making my own Christmas cards, I did it production line style. Then I realized I wasn't really enjoying it and decided I needed some variety in my cardmaking for it to be fun. However, since I was using the same image three times in this design, I figured it would be just as easy to stamp a few more and make a second card, qualifying for Sarn's Rudolph Day Challenge.  And it turned out I had just enough snippets to turn out two cards that are virtually identical.

The tree (from some cheap little unbranded set I picked up at HL years ago) is colored with pencils, with the star colored with a glitter pen.  There are two layers of glitter garlands on the tree -- I started with Diamond Stickles but once they had dried, I thought they were not obvious enough and added Silver Stickles. (Christmas cards need obvious glitter, right?).

The patterned papers (all snippets) are from an Echo Park stack.  The panel that runs the width of the card has thin red satin ribbon along the edges.

ETA: Whoops, I meant to put a sentiment in the lower right corner....  I'll do that before these get mailed.

I'm entering this card in these challenges

Rudolph Day, September
Pixie's Snippet Playground #143
Word Art Wednesday # 151, Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday, Anything Goes
Inky Impressions #178, Anything Goes

Ornamental

I worked at a booth at a stamping/scrapbooking show two weekends ago. I had planned to take an hour off to shop the show, but it was pretty busy and the only place I got to shop with the booth I was working at. One of my purchases was a set of Christmas stamps from Kaisercraft, and I put it to use making a couple of quick cards.
The cards are based on this week's challenge at The Paper Players, and it was a great excuse to utilize a bunch of snippets I had stuffed into a stack of Christmas paper from Echo Park. I really shouldn't save 1-inch strips, but with 6x6 paper, I end up with a lot of them.
The ornament is silver-embossed on red paper and popped up on foam adhesive. I used a little silver cording for something for the ornament to dangle from, and added a bow of sparkly fiber on each. (Those are snippets, too, the last I have of both the silver and gold versions of that  fiber).
I made the one with the black background first, then tried putting the banners at a slight angle -- I think the angles look a little jauntier, and I think I prefer that one.

I'm entering these cards in these challenges:
Rudolph Day July -- 2 cards
Papertake Weekly -- It's a jolly holiday
Holly Jolly Christmas -- Deck the Halls
Clear It Out -- Christmas with something sparkly
Pixie's Snippet Playground #135 -- lots of snippets here