2011 - Christmas Card Challenge

I was really happy with the results of Christmas Card Challenge last year so I'm running another one this year! What I have learned this year is that the cards need to be completely done. I needed to add inserts & credits on many this year which slowed me down.

I will be posting my cards the first of the month along with suggestions and encouragement to participate in the challenge. In the end, the objective is to get your cards made throughout the year and the themes are meant to be inspirational. Join as many months as you want. If you participate, please add a comment including the link to your card so others can be inspired. I'm looking forward to seeing your creations. Become a follower of my blog if you want to be notified of my postings.

Here's my list of themes with a few ideas next to each of them:

Jan - Vintage Christmas - St. Nick, Victorian images & colors, Antique Ornaments, Old Fashioned
Feb - Musical Christmas - Carolers, Instruments, Drummer Boy, Carols & Hymns, Nutcracker
Mar - Color - Monochromatic - several shades of a single color
Apr - Winter - Snowflakes, Snowmen, Penguins, Sleds, Skates, Sleighs, Igloos
May - Reason for the Season - Nativity, Manger, Stars, Angels, Wisemen, Bethlehem, Doves
Jun - Color - Chocolate/Red/Cream - any combinations of these colors
Jul - Christmas Around the World - Feliz Navidad, Poinsettias, Father Christmas
Aug - Christmas Glitters - use glitter on your card
Sep - Color - Non Traditional Colors - Pink, Lime Green, Teal, Turquoise, Kraft, and much more.
Oct - Natural Christmas - Pinecones, Mistletoes, Raffia, Pine Trees, Twig Wreaths
Nov - Christmas Decorations - Ornaments, Stockings, Candy Canes, Lights, Gingerbread
Dec - Color - Metallics - Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper

Christmas Cards - Custom Designed

I designed these cards for a client. The music sheet ones are in 4 different colors (green, sepia, mauve, & brown) with 4 Christmas songs (O Little Town of Bethlehem, Away in the Manger, Joy to the World, & Silent Night). The leaves are printed then a red hydrangea silk flower was added with 2 graduated sized gold sequins on a tiny gold brad. The insert was customized to their specifications.

The Wisemen cards were also designed with a blue and taupe backgrounds and a custom insert.

I'm really happy with the way these turned out.

Photo - Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and I have way too much left to do!

I hope you have a great Christmas season over the next few days. We are celebrating ours on Boxing Day!

Photo Calender - Angels

This is this year's calendar. They make great gifts.

I've put together photos I took over the year into a 2011 calendar. I've been to cemeteries, churches, Christmas displays and other places to take photos of a variety of angels. The photo on the front here is one of the angels that guards the Book of Remembrance in the Peace Tower in Ottawa which holds the names of each Canadian soldier lost in war. I have praying angels, heralding angels, rejoicing angels, singing angels and musical angels. Here's my calendars from last year.

Card - Digital - Poinsettia

This is a photo I took couple of years ago of a great poinsettia plant. I framed it and added a greeting and voila! another card ready for printing. Print, add an insert, an envelope and a bit of personal note and it's ready to go! Great option for last-minute cards.

Card - Digital - Bethlehem

Another digital card. I drew the line art quite a while ago but added the oval background this year. The original art took a long time to produce but I have been able to use it for several projects. This is a quick and easy card. It is designed for a person to print, add an insert with a personal greeting and an envelope and be ready to go. One person can make many in a few hours and it is done!

Photo - Poinsettias

I was out to the Muttart Conservatory on Sunday to take in some of the season's atmosphere. Of course, poinsettias were featured extensively. As you can see from this collage, there were many colors on display. I'm not sure about blue poinsettias with glitter besides. There were bears on a train in the feature pavilion. I managed to find holly in the temperate pyramid. It was a good few hours. I updated my blog header as well using one of my photos.

Card - Digital - Burgundy Star

I designed this card with digital elements from AriaSparkle Graphics. The background is a digital scan of a green fabric. The placement of the background involves ensuring that I stay within the printer's margins and align it to ensure even borders when the full sheet is cut in two. The PEACE are individual digital elements. I colored them to match the star element. I placed the star at an angle to the greeting. It was printed on natural parchment card stock. Here's a link to the last year card.

Card - Silver Snowflake

I created this card for a group at work. I used a white card and added a black layer stamped with white ink and embossed. I cut 2 Sizzix snowflakes in white and silver, layered them and used a brad to hold them in place. I added a few tiny brads over the card front to repeat the white circle theme. I cut the sentiment from silver paper with the Cuttlebug Red Tag alphabet.

Cmas Card Challenge - Dec - Santa/St.Nick

I have added St. Nick to the category which will allow vintage images and coloring to the category. You can stamp, die-cut, color print, watercolor, chalk, marker or emboss these jolly men onto a card. Here's the cards I made.

I started with a vintage St. Nick image which I color printed. I layered it onto off white cardstock coordinating with his robe and then burgundy cardstock matching his overcoat. I selected a Blue Bayou cardstock which matched the background.

Left: I embossed the top 2/3 of the card with a Cuttlebug folder. I placed a ribbon just below it and taped the ends to the inside of the card through a slit in the fold. Glued the St. Nick layer to the top left corner. Added a greeting stamped in white below and a MS punched snowflake on the right. Added a silver sparkly in the centre.
Right:I created a gatefold card. I stippled the outside edges of the card with Ruby Red ink. I stamped a small flourish in white ink to the left of the image. I glued the St. Nick layer to the left card flap.

I made 8 of these cards:

Total to date: 131

Christmas Stack Class - Version 2

A friend hosted a Christmas Stack Class for co-workers on Monday night. It was a smaller group and a different atmosphere. We had a good time!

I made up some of the card kits in a different way than the one I designed originally. It was fun. I know this happens every time I have a class because there is no rule that the supplies provided in the card kit must be used in a particular way. It's their cards they can make they way they like. Participants use their creativity and come up with great ideas. To the left are a few of the cards I made.

Cards - Joy

I made these for my exchange cards this month. I'm using triangle trees again in pearl and Always Artichoke cardstock on the left one and Very Vanilla touched with Kiwi Kiss and River Rock on the right. I embossed them with Cuttlebug embossing folders - Devine Swirl and Tapestry. I added a vellum background. I placed the trees and then added a red satin ribbon layered with an Always Artichoke cardstock strip. The greeting was diecut with the Sizzix Shadow Box Alphabet from gold textured paper. I mounted them over the ribbon layer with foam tape to raise them a bit from the surface of the card. This year was the first time I used River Rock and I really like the color a lot!

Card Kits - Snowflakes

You will note that the scrapbook paper is not snowflake related. It still works! I used the silver organza ribbon down the center of the card. I mounted the large 3d snowflake over the centre will double sided tape between the ribbon and the paper then the glue dot between the snowflake and the ribbon. I added a small snowflake sequin in the centre. It feels good to be able to clean up and start new next year when I start Christmas cards.

Card - Farewell

We have a lady leaving our workplace who will be greatly missed. We had a potluck today for her to say "See you later" not goodbye. I made this large card to give everyone an opportunity to write a sentiment to her. She is an outdoors person so I decided it should have trees on it. I started with 8.5x11 Always Artichoke cardstock fold in half. I smudge the card with always several green inks with the direct to paper technique. I added some blue water cut with the Creative Memories wavy cutter and smudged it with navy ink. I added 3 triangle pine trees. Two are ivory and embossed with Cuttlebug Devine Swirl the other one is pearl cardstock. I added the setting sun behind the trees and I smudge a horizon line behind the trees. It would have been best to do that earlier. I added pearl stars in the sky. I stamped the sentiment with CTMH alphabet set in green ink.

Card Kits - Snowflakes

I have a few snowflakes left over from my classes so I thought I would make a few more cards. Here I selected a royal blue card and added an Cuttlebug embossed snowflake background. I slipped the wide silver ribbed ribbon through the hanger for the snowflake then glued it to the back of the embossed layer. This full layer was glued to the card. I added a small greeting which was punched with the Stampin Up! Window punch. I had added an insert with a Christmas sentiment to finish it off.

Card Kits - Snowflakes

I've used the large clear snowflake with some turquoise snowflake scrapbook paper in the back ground. It is held in place with a glue dot. I have mounted it on a white card. The background paper was ripped to leave a space of white card. I wrapped a piece of organza ribbon around the front of the card and knotted on the front.

Christmas Stack Class - Snowflake

I had a great Christmas Card Stack class today. There were 12 or so ladies in the room. Most left the class with their Christmas ready to go! Very good.

I have some great snowflakes on these cards.

I chose some snowflake background paper in blue purple and olive green. The greetings were color printed and punched with the Stampin Up! horizontal window punch. The blue card has a large snowflake held in place with a glue dot. The ribbon is placed horizontal near the top of the card and just knotted. The greeting is placed above the ribbon. On the green card the ribbon runs vertically around the card front. The ends come together at the top and holds the small snowflake in place and is tied into a bow. The greeting is placed on the bottom right hand corner.

Christmas Stack Class - Red/Green Holly

I bought this great Designer Paper but I found it was a challenge to create a card with it.

I decided on red and green cardstock as color options for this sketch. I created an accent to match the card color. I ripped out a strip of the DP to create a space to make the card stock visible. I added a gross grain ribbon tied in a knot and taped to the inside of the card. The greeting is a Stampin Up! scallop punchie, a coordinating 1 3/8 inch punchie and a color printed "Season's Greeting". I create 2 color options (red and green).

Christmas Stack Class - Foil Paper Blue/White

This foil paper appears quite dark but it really is not. I started with a white card and added a layer of great foil paper. The greeting was color printed and trimmed with decorative scissors. I chose a MS Snowflake punch in blue and a sequin snowflake all held in place with a blue brad.

Christmas Stack Class - Foil Paper Raspberry/Silver

This is a great foil paper with silver swirls on a raspberry background. It reminds me of a evening sky. I started with a white card. I chose to put a Sizzix silver star die cut onto the top 2/3 of the card. The ribbon across the bottom of the card is matte silver organza. It is pulled through a slit in the card fold to the inside of the card and taped to the card inside. The "joy" greeting was color printed on white cardstock and then punched into a 1" circle. A 1.25" silver punchie was added under the greeting. This accent was added to the ribbon.