Ho Ho Ho

I've been so busy with general life stuff that put me waaay behind in my Christmas Crafting!!  I finally managed to squeeze in some time this past weekend and finished my Christmas cards, as well as a few cute stocking stuffers for my nieces.  This first project was so easy, but it's my favorite!   

This next project was a file from the Silhouette store.  I've seen it as a gift card holder, which I may do next year.  The back of the tag says, "Hope you're nice."  The stamp set was from Stampin' Up.

 

Here's a funky gift card holder; the snowflake is on an Action Wobble.  LOVE THOSE!!!

On to my Christmas cards.  I wanted to try a different type of card, and had just learned how to make a Shutter card that was so fun.  I used some pretty Stampin' Up paper that I purchased on a whim.  I really like how it turned out, but boy was it a lot of work!!  Each card called for 1 big snowflake and 2 small ones which had to be stamped, cut, glittered and assembled.  I didn't put moch fore-thought into it until I realized I needed over 20 cards. That's 60 snowflakes!!!   

 

 

About halfway into it, I ran out of paper.  I placed an order and my heart sunk every day when the mailbox was empty.  I got a little nervous that the new stack wouldn't make it in time, so I decided to make a few more different ones using new stamps and paper.  The first is a file folder card.  This was so much easier to mass produce and I love how it turned out.  The second one is using the same stamp set, but on a more traditional card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope everyone has a wonder Christmas! 

 



 

Summer Reading

 

I am in a monthly card swap group that has a different theme each month.  Let me tell you, these are some REALLY talented ladies!!  Most of my cards fall well short of the other creations, but the ladies are so supportive and patient with my skills.  I like to think I am getting better, but who knows.  The theme for the month of June is Bookmarks.  We are to make 2 different bookmarks, any theme/style/design.  At first I really struggled until I turned to good old Pinterest.  I found the cutest card and wanted to downsize it to a bookmark.  Well, as usual, my vision was a bit ambitious and I had to revamp the design.  Here is the first one, a beach theme:

I used the Cricut Cartridge Life is a Beach for the chair and umbrella.  I also used the Everyday Paper Dolls Cartridge for the book.  Finally, the sunshine came from Doodlecharms.  Everything I make has to have some bling, so I blinged out the sun with some Diamond Stickles. 










For the second bookmark, I found inspiration in a Moroccan lantern I made with a SVG cut from the Silhouette store.  Here is the lantern:

 

I put one of those electric tea lights in the center and love how looks at night.  In order to make it into a bookmark, I had to do a lot of cutting and resizing of the pattern.  After it was cut, I decided it was too flimsy, so I cut a contrasting color for backing.  Here is the end product:

 

Silhouette, LOVIN IT!!!!

I was so frustrated with ProvoCraft that I decided to buy a Silhouette Cameo machine.  I played around with it for a while and thought it best to find an online class on how to use it.  I was referred by someone to Jessica Sprague's website for different Silhouette courses.  I bought every course available and have learned so much!!  Kerri Bradford is an amazing teacher!!  I watch the video on my old laptop computer and have my other computer hooked up to my Silhouette so I can follow along with the video.  One of the video's covers importing digital papers into your designs.  LOVE THAT!!!  I wanted to see if it was possible to fill a card design with a pattern paper I had saved a while ago.  I opened the Baby Bottle Card I bought from the Silhouette store and filled the base with purple, the top layer with the Mardi Gras paper and the top part with a gold color.  I haven't been this excited in a long time!!  The possibilities are totally endless!!  I have no idea what I'm going to do with the card, but it was a fun start.

Another video class touched on designing an 8.5x11" page in the Silhouette Designer Edition program.  I followed Kerri's directions, step-by-step and this is how my page turned out.  It needs a bit more work, but I don't think it's bad for a first try.

Valentine's Day boxes

Is it too early to start working on Valentines?  I'm co-hosting a Kids Class Valentine class next week where the girls will create 30 candy boxes, fill with candy and attach a little tag.  The box came from one of my Creative Memories cartridges and the tag was made with my new Silhouette Cameo machine, which I LOVE!!!  I cut two different sizes, 2 inches and 2.5 inches. I really like the smaller size, it's just so cute!!  The paper was from an old DCWV stack that I use to make my samples.  I'm not sure which paper we'll actually use for the class, maybe a few different patterns for the kids to choose from.  I'm thinking of using red Hershey Kisses for the smaller one and the Hershey Nugget bars for the larger one.