Christmas in January

Yes, that's right Christmas in January - cards that is! I'm not going to be scrambling at the end of the year to get Christmas cards out. A few people I know are making a few cards each week or month. Well for me, to say it and do it are two different things. That's why I'm so excited to be a part of a new blog Christmas Stampin' All Year Long dedicated to Christmas cards. The blog members there will have LOTS of inspiration for you all year through in order for you to get your cards done too!

This week we were given a sketch to use for our card creations. I got this awesome stamp set AFTER Christmas had have been wanting to ink it up really bad. Here's my sample:

The sentiment is part of the stamp set which is from The Angel Company. I also used my Fiskars border punch for the sides. Below is a closeup of Santa:

I colored with Prismacolor pencils & OMS, Copic marker for his face and a little bit of Stickles around his wand and in his star basket. I used Amelia SWIC & Cardstock from The Angel Company.

I really like this card but I have to be a little realistic. I send out over 75 cards and the Santa card is a 6x6 which means I'm going to pay extra postage to send him. So I looked at the sketch and decided to make an A2 card. One of my goals is not just making one card a week but being able to make several cards at one sitting - otherwise I'm not going to make it in time!! The same papers & supplies were used just different stamp sets. This first sample is one that follows the sketch pretty closely - I just flipped it.



The stamp sets are Birdy Holiday, Curls n Swirls and Holiday Cheer all from The Angel Company. There are small rhinestones on the bird image & on the sentiment tag. The next one I just used Stickles to add a little bling - less bulk but still a little extra punch. I didn't use "happy holidays" and instead used the "peace on earth" sentiment that I had left off above.




And the last one is the simplest of them all. On this one I cut out the curls n swirls and the bling.

In a scrapbook magazine I used to get they'd show a project and how you can "step it up". I always thought that was neat. That's what I tried to show here. Each of us create at different levels and in different ways. Sometimes you are able to spend a lot of time on a card. Other times you can't. All the cards are beautiful in their own way - just like us. We each bring unique touches to our cards and that's what's so cool about blogs - to see all the uniqueness!

So what do you say - why not make a Christmas card today and get a head start for December! You'll be glad you did and I'd love for you to share your creations as I need all the ideas I can get!!