My 2010 Christmas Card Challenge

I am challenging myself to make Christmas Cards all year long instead of cramming during my busiest time of the year. I also have several Christmas Card Classes scheduled this year so I will need some ideas for those. I have decided on a theme for each month.

Here's my list:

January - Snowflakes
Feb - Evergreen trees
Mar - Gingerbread
Apr - Nativity
May - Candles
Jun - Poinsettias
July - Angels
Aug - Winter (Snowmen,etc)
Sept - Stars
Oct - Wreaths
Nov - Stockings/Ornaments
Dec - Santa/St. Nick

Each month I will make several of the same card based on the theme for the month. I will post my card here. Do you want to join me? You can use this blog as inspiration if you want to get your cards made in good time this year. Click on the post to leave a comment. If you want to be reminded of the challenge become a follower of my blog then my post will arrive in your reading list every month.

Christmas Thank You Cards

I finally got these out! I was blessed with good things for Christmas. I created these Christmas thank yous. I layered the circles onto gold colored paper then layered that onto a strip of white cardstock which had gold curly ribbon wrapped around it. The cardstock was embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The greeting is from a small clear stamp set from Michaels. A fairly quick card to put together.

Card Club - December - Photo Acetate

This card features a flower photo printed on a laser transparency. I used my own photos and selected ones with good contrast so when they were printed in black and white there would be clear areas for the watercolored paper to show through. Having a few dark areas gives you places to put your adhesive to keep the acetate in place. The acetate is trimmed to the edge of the photo then the watercolor paper is trimmed to the same edge. The lacy strip at the top was made with the MS Arches border punch. I added some coordinating silk flowers attached with a mini brad.

Card Club - December - Binding Edge Border Punch

I started with the Binding Edge border punch by EKSuccess on a piece of ruled paper. I used striped scrapbook paper and some coordinating chocolate chip gross grain ribbon. I made the slit in the top fold with the SU Horizontal Slot punch. The large "U" is cut with the Sizzix Shadow Box alphabet die. There possible many color combinations. This one's colors would make it a card for a great guy.

Card Club - December - Lattice Die

The central accent on this card was created with the Stampin Up Lattice Die. I found my inspiration on line at Splitcoast Stampers. The green piece was cut with the die then I glued the die cut over a piece of coordinating scrapbook paper and trimmed around the edges with scissors. The die creates 16 petal shapes which happen to fit perfectly on the Stampin Up five petal punch shape. Isn't that great! I think so. I glued the petals on and mounted the flower to the card with a brad over a coordinating card stock strip. Again, many looks can be acheived by changing the colors.

Card Club - December - Gocco Printed

The greeting on this card was printed on with gold ink and a Gocco Machine. Very cool process. The 3D silver star is mounted with a Zot. The bow is made in red satin ribbon. Classic look to this card.

Gift Card Holders

These are gift card holders. I folded a piece of cardstock in half. Then using my Sizzix large crescent tag die I placed the fold of the cardstock just short of the bottom cutting edge and I passed it through my Big Shot. I created a vellum card holder on the inside and placed a piece of paper on the opposite tag for placing a sentiment to the receiver. I added an organza ribbon bow. Then, I decorated the front with decorative paper and silk flowers. I think they turned out great!

Photo Calendars

I created some photo calendars this year for Christmas gifts. I had decided that I would like to make a calendar with barn pictures so I spent a couple of days on my vacation travelling the highways and back roads of Ontario scouting out barns and other interesting buildings. Ontario barns are quite different than Alberta barns. They generally have stone foundations.
The garden calendar has a few closeups of flowers and garden ornaments like statues and water ponds. I really liked the shot of the door on the front of the calendar. That shot was a Parkwood Estate in Oshawa. This gave me the opportunity to use my Zutter Bind It All machine to install the o-wire binding at the top. I used MS Publisher for the layout. I'm happy with how they turned out.

Small Christmas Cards

Small square cards for co-workers. I used double-sided scrapbook paper. The snowflake punch is the glacier punch from MS. The punched shape is very delicate and needs to be handled very carefully while applying glue so it will make it to the paper intact. Color printed greetings punched with the STUP! window punch. I used envelopes left over from another project.

Card - Digital - Joy

I designed this card with a decorative font and a polished stone background image. I scanned a background I did up this summer. The word JOY is 3 separate letters layered onto a square of polished stone background which has been converted to sepia. It took a while to work out the print colors, card stock and the layout. It is printed in chocolate brown on natural parchment card stock.

My 3D Art - Christmas Vignette

This is different from my usual card art. We are having a contest at work for those who decorate their offices. This is the vignette I set up in front of my desk. I started with the "Merry Christmas" wood blocks which I have owned for many years. I got them when swapping with another crafter at the end of a slow sale. She did not want to bring them home and I liked them so we did some Christmas trading. The gifts are just empty boxes weighted with glass marbles that I wrapped with dark green gift wrap and added some pink gross grain ribbon bows. The large ball ornament, my sister made for me a while ago. The steel tree I bought at the Butterdome Craft Sale last year. I'll let you know if I win!

Card Club - Nov - Vellum ornaments

Another vellum card. This is wonderful printed vellum I found at a garage sale. I used the bright goldenrod cardstock to highlight the ornaments. I ripped the bottom of the vellum to allow the color printed greeting to be on the bottom edge of the card. The header was stamped and gold embossed with a circle border from Hero Arts. The burgundy cardstock hides any glue used and the tiny gold brads keep the vellum secured to the card.

Card Club - Nov - Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree was cut from commercial handmade paper. It is cut from a 12x12 and it's dimensions are 4"tall and 3 inches wide which works well in the 12 inch format. I get quite a few out of one sheet. Sizzix Star die for the silver star. I forget where I bought this nice mirror like silver paper but it's really nice. The vellum creates a nice snowy background for the tree. Snowbank was cut with my CM wavy cutter out of the same silver paper. Add a brown trunk. The vellum is attached to the card under the tree and snowbank to eliminate the adhesive showing through. Great traditional Christmas colors.

Card Club - Nov - Glitter Snowflakes

I used organza fabric with silver glittered snowflakes on it. The scan does not do justice to the snowflakes. They are gorgeous. I use Terrifically Tacky Tape (with the red liner) to glue the fabric to the inside of the card. It covered the full front of the card. A white piece of cardstock with a greeting was ripped into a snowbank. I included a couple of brads to help keep the fabric in place. The snowflake is MS Glacier Snowflake punch. It is a very nice punch but the shape is very delicate and several were broken during the class while attempting to put the brad in the center. I finished off the card with a white satin/organza ribbon at the top fold.

Card Club - Nov - Glitter Star

I had a great class tonight with my Card Club. This is a very simple card with the red gold star paper being trimmed to leave a 1/4 inch border all the way around. The glittered star was die cut with the Sizzix Primitive Star die. It took a while to find the right glitter cardstock. I have several sheets that will have to be used for another card making session. I found this one in Ontario while I was on vacation. The star is mounted on foam tape for dimension.

Christmas Stack Class - Poinsettia & Star

These cards were designed to fit a standard #10 envelope. I found nice red ones on sale after Christmas last year! The ivory cardstock was spattered with gold acrylic paint. The greeting was color printed and clear embossed on vellum. The poinsettia flower is made up of a small daisy punched from the gold giftwrap, a beige silk flower, a red velvet hydrangea flower with the leaves from a dollar store flower pick. The gold gift wrap I bought a Winner's just recently. I went back for a second roll because it's gorgeous paper. The second card uses a Stampin Up! Real Red cardstock piece embossed with Cuttlebug Devine Swirl embossing folder. The star is cut with the Sizzix Star die. The vellum is held in place with 3 gold brads.

Christmas Stack Class - Star

This is a very simple but elegant card. The cardstock is Christmas green. I layered a white Cuttlebug Christmas Words embossed piece of carstock. The star is a large sequin but I discovered that it is exactly the same size as a one of the stars on the Sizzix 3 Star die which came in handy when I ran out of sequins. I cut the other stars from gold and silver metallic cardstock. It filled the need very well. Having enough supplies for a large class can be a challenge! The 7/8" organza ribbon was placed on the fold once the insert has been glued in place. The star is stuck with a Zot. The sequins came in gold, red and green so I put deep brown cardstock with cream ribbon with the gold and red cardstock with a sheer green ribbon with the red ones.

Christmas Stack Class - Snowflake

I placed the Sizzix Large Snowflake die on to a ripped piece of vellum, onto a nice blue card. The greeting is color printed and punched with the Stampin Up! Word Window Slot punch. It provides a adhesion point for the vellum. The brad is a clear crystal medium. I layered a white silk flower between the brad and the snowflake. The ribbon is 1/4" white gross grain that I buy at a packaging store here called "Creative Packaging". Good value. There's a slot in the fold to accommodate the ribbon going around the front of the card. The other color option was plum with ivory accents which worked as well.
I love this card.

Christmas Stack Class - Gingerbread Man

It was a great class today! Many of the ladies walked away with a stack of Christmas cards ready to send. Everyone was happy with their cards. The cardstock is Always Artichoke from Stampin Up! This wonderful guy is the Sizzix Gingerbread Man die cut in a warm brown cardstock. A bit of Berrylicious Bazzil cardstock to color the hearts on his tummy. The background paper is scrapbook paper. The ribbon is from the Value bin at Michael's. It's really nice ribbon in a ginger color which matched perfectly. It was soft and really nice to work with. The icing was put in with a Milky Way White Galaxy Marker. I've started using this marker because white gel pens have just stopped working after just a bit of use.

Christmas Tags

Here's the Christmas Tag kits I designed this year. It's a set of 20.

The top left hand corner is alchohol ink backgrounds on cardstock with acetate overlays. See my earlier posting on alcohol ink backgrounds.

Top right hand corner are square taags with glitter cardstock with Sizzix die cuts.

Right hand middle are recycled Christmas cards. I cut them with my large crescent Sizzix tag die. Worked really well.

Bottom left is cream & holly gift wrap with poinsettias made with the Stampin Up! five petal punch.

Bottom right is double sided designer cardstock.

The ties are a mixture of satin ribbon, cool fiber, and cording.