Days 6 & 5 - A Double Gift - Gift Box and Shaker Card

O.K., call me a slacker. It is actually the contrary. I have been running on 6 hours or less sleep for multiple nights, plus work and Christmas stuff, so I have been totally exhausted. So here is the doubly delicious post that is a gift box with a NOEL double sided card with snowman shaker front panel. We did this last year as a make-n-take project in my Stamper’s club. I showed them the cute box that they could make on their own to store the card in. It is from Creative Imaginations. The alphabet stamps used on this have since retired (Headline Alphabet from Stampin’ Up!®), but you can substitute sticker letters or another alphabet. This tired little elf is off to beddy bye!

Day 7 - Something to Adore!

As a visitor to my blog, you have looked forward to the Christmas Countdown with a project a day. Today’s post is about something to Adore — the Adore 2097 Tour. I couldn’t help but post about the amazing concert we attended last night at our church. It was an evening of praise and worship that really highlighted this advent season. There was joy, tears and some amazingly talented performers, including Matt Maher, Josh Blakesley, Kelly Pease and Paul George. There were so many amazing songs, but the overall message that resounded in my mind afterwards was a real message of hope that all of us can use right about now...that all things are possible with God. This is what I will be reminding myself of daily as we enter into 2009. For our family, 2008 has been a year of challenge, health issues for family and friends, as well as a time of real change and adjustment. So as we are just a week away from Christmas, I wish to share that message of hope with all of you, too! Check back tomorrow for some new creative inspirations!

Day 8- Handmade Monogrammed Note Cards

This holiday gift idea was one featured in my "12 Tips" article in the Dec. issue of Scrap & Stamps Arts magazine. All you need is some patterned paper, a cool alphabet stamp set or letter stickers, other favorite stamps, a circle punch sized to show the full letter, some ribbon, ink and cardstock. A complete list of supplies used can be found in the article. So if you need a quick gift idea for Christmas, a birthday, a hostess gift or to just tell someone thanks, just make up a set of 4-5 monogrammed note cards with matching envelopes, drop in a gift bag or tie them with a bow and you are sure to have a well-loved, practical gift. An alternate idea is to give a gift set of all-occasion cards.

Day 9 - 80 Degrees, but posting about Snowflakes!

O.K., so this doesn’t seem very fitting. It is about 80 degrees in Florida today and I choose to post these snowflake cards. The only snowflakes I am viewing here are decorative ornaments hung from my window panes. Again, I used my favorite holiday set, Snow Swirled, and the gorgeous snowflakes from this set. I stuck with a winter color scheme of Whisper White, Baja Breeze and silver. I just love the wide grosgrain ribbon in Baja Breeze. I used it to create this faux stylized bow. To make the embossed snowflakes spotlighted, simply cut your strip of white cardstock, stamp the large flake in baja breeze ink, use a circle punch to create the windows, attach to the card front, then emboss the flakes inside the openings. Glue Arts’ ribbon adhesive works great for attaching the ribbon. I also used some micro adhesive squares from their product line to attach the loop around the ribbons. For the top card, I also used the scallop edge punch from Stampin’ Up!®. See my new tip of the month posting (in the side bar) for evenly spacing the circle openings!

Day 10 - Another Christmas Layout!

Here is a Christmas Layout I did using Glue Arts adhesives. It is being featured on FaveCrafts.com. This shows layering of flowers and buttons using Glue Arts adhesive squares and micro squares, ribbons using Crop & Glue Ribbon Adhesive, Frosted Chipboard letters, rhinestones and a fun holiday wreath "frame" made using a scallop circle punch. To check out the supplies and instructions, go to the Favecrafts link above. 

Another cool technique to try that I used on this layout is altering your photo to a monochrome or duotone photo to match your patterned papers. Speaking of papers, these were all super yummilicious papers from Karen Foster Design.

Day 11 - Same Card, New Twist!

If you visit my blog often, you then already know how I like to use the same layout and mix it up a bit by changing paper, ink colors or embellishments. Why reinvent the wheel when you can get on a good roll with one good idea, right? Today’s card, Amethyst Glitz, is a twist on yesterday’s Kiwi and Red Christmas card idea, only I made the wheeled pattern a bit stronger, used chalk pastels, sponge daubers and versamark ink to colorize the tree and snowflake. I cheated on ribbon useage by doing a smaller bow, added some scallops to the bottom of my framed panel and made the tree sparkle by randomly dotting 2-way glue and adding some lavender Cosmo glitter. The color combinations used are: Whisper White, Certainly Celery and Orchid Oppulence CS. The wheel is So Swirly and the stamp set is Snow Swirled, my Christmas favorite. For the verse, I used Orchid Oppulence Ink and Certainly Celery was used for wheeling. To add vibrant edging, I used Tempting Turquoise to make the white panel stand out and spattered Celery, Turqouise and Orchid markers over the white background using the Color Spritzer tool. All of these products are available on my Stampin’ Up!® website!