Merry Christmas!

As you may have noticed, I haven't been around too much lately. But I was busy! So here are the Christmas cards that I sent out (and that all got there on time ;) this year.

This is my first Paper Smooches stamp set I purchased, and I will most definitely be a return customer! I got my use out of it with these 3 cards:

All my dog lover friends and family received this card, "fleas Navidad" :)

And this adorable santa! Its hard to tell but the snowflake was made from this really awesome glitter paper.

And here they are all. There is one more design that I forgot to take a close up of before I had them all in envelopes. its with PTI's Bells and Boughs that I won during the release and is in the front left corner of the bunch.

You can see it a little better here. They were the more serious cards, the rest were all cutsey :)

I hope you all had a wonderful day full of family and food, and that Santa filled your stockings full of crafty goodies :) Merry Christmas!

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Time for my monthly Splitcoast Sketch Challenge with Hambo! Here's this week's sketch:

And here's my card:

I used the new Elfgift digi that you can find here. Isn't he just adorable? See that cute sheet music paper underneath? Suzanne gave me a sheet of it :)

This card uses cardstock from SU and so is the diamond patterned paper (not sure where Suzanne got the sheet music from). The ribbon was from the dollar bin at Joanns...forever ago!

Because of the busyness of the holiday season, Hambo decided not to do a challenge at the Hoedown this week, that is why you're seeing my Hambo card early. But don't worry, I've got all my Christmas cards to show you that I've been diligently working on and FINALLY sent all of them out this morning at 6:30 on the way to the gym. I was shocked...I started a line of cars at the post office that early in the morning!

Hambo Hoedown #46

This week's challenge at the Hambo Hoedown was to use Santa Monster (which you can find here) and to use rounded corners (because Santa doesn't cut corners ;) I wanted to make sure there were a lot of rounded corners, so I used circles, the Top Note die, and of course rounded the corners of my card. It turned out like this:

Santa Monster is colored with Copics and the circles are cut with Nestabilities and various sized circle punches.

The sentiment comes with this digi (there are two included). I cut it out with one of my SU label punches and added some red pearls for color.

All cardstock is a mixture of SU and PTI. The ribbon and button are SU. The pearls are Q and Company. If you would like the chance to earn your own free digital image from Hambo, go on over to the Hoedown, here, and give it a try for yourself!

Hambo Hoedown #45

It's that time again...time for my Hambo Hoedown post! This week's challenge was to use this cute "Anty Claus" image (which you can find here) and to use an extra fold in your card. Well, I decided to add more than one!

I made my ant red because I grew up in FL where we had a TON of red ants.

And here are my extra folds. I took a piece of card stock and scored it many times. I folded it on the score lines and got a ripple/pleating effect. Then I tied some twine from the Twinery on top and added some awesome bling that Christina gave me on Saturday at our Christmas card making get-together. It is from Recollections and called bling on a roll.

All the cardstock is a mixture of SU and PTI. The image was colored with Copics. The button is from SU. So go on over to the Hoedown blog, here, and give this challenge a shot for yourself! It means earning a free Hambo digi image for yourself :) Who could resist??

The Ornament Exchange

Right before Thanksgiving I posted that I needed to get my 24 handmade ornaments done. Well, I did, and tonight's the night! My mom's annual ornament exchange.

It was actually Phillip's idea for me to make a mini card this year. Afterall, I do spend most of my free time in my craft room and I also had the wonderful achievement of being on my first Design Team! I like to try to make my ornament tell a story from my life that particular year, so the card worked nicely for that.

I made five different ones, but made the most of the penguin because I thought he'd probably be everyone's favorite.

The stamps are all PTI. They're from Tiny Treats Christmas. The circle is actually from one of the Tag sets, though. The label punch and ribbon are from SU and the rhinestones from recollections. The cardstock is all PTI.

And then to make it seem more like a card and not just a little tag, I made the inside for each one, too :)

My mom has been doing this ornament exchange since 1987! Every year she invited 24 of her friends to come over to her house for a fun evening. Each attendee brings a basket full of her 24 ornaments, and first enjoys the 3 signature desserts that mom makes each year (coconut pound cake, apple dump cake, and mexican chocolate cake...all delicious!) and gets to make 3 different ornaments that my mom has set out at different stations. After everyone has made their ornaments and is full, they all gather in a big circle in the living room with their baskets. Each person tells how they got the idea for their ornament and any story that may go along with it. Then the baskets are passed around so that when it comes back to you, your basket is now full of 24 different handmade ornaments! As a child, my grandpa and dad would take my brother, sister, and I out to eat and then we'd get to come back and fill up on desserts. It was always fun to look at the ornaments the next day and figure out which ones we liked best. The year I got married is the year I joined in on the fun. This will be my 8th year and although I've only actually attended one or two (because I've always lived somewhere else since we got married) I still participate by mailing my ornaments and my mom is my "stand-in." Because she has so many ornaments, I was raised that on the Christmas tree, if you can see green, then you haven't put enough ornaments on ;) But now her collection spreads not only to her huge tree, but to garlands that she hangs all in the living room and entry way, and to at least 3 other trees she has in the house as well. I am up to two now! Anyway, its a wonderful tradition that I look forward to every year and I may even start one myself someday, although I don't think I could fit 24 ladies in my living room!

Hambo Hoedown #44

It's time for another Hoedown at Hambo! This week's challenge was to use the digital image Snowball Fight (which you can find here) and to use dry embossing on your card (don't you love their "punny" challenges? Snow is wet, so use something dry...). If you'd like to give this challenge a shot yourself, head on over to the Hambo Hoedown page, here. It will mean a free digi stamp for you!

I used this cute Sizzix embossing folder as my dry embossing. It reminds me of snow, so it went well with this stamp. I also tied the bells on to my sheer blue ribbon with some twine to give the card a festive appeal.

Notice the nice, straight, pinking shears line? Well, that was made with my new PTI pinking shears die that I got in my last release package. The pearls are from Recollections.

I got a lot of use out of my BG10 Cool Shadow Copic marker on this digi stamp to make the snow stand out on the white background. If you don't own Copics but want to get started, make sure to get this marker first...I use it the most of them all!

All cardstock is PTI, and other supplies were listed above. It has been unusually warm up here in Massachusetts, this year. We're still getting in the 60s in the afternoons and we've only seen snow on Halloween when we had that huge storm that caused so much damage. Most people up here are really thankful that it is so warm and hasn't snowed yet. To me, it just doesn't quite seem like its going to be December tomorrow without the cold.

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Each month with Hambo, I get to choose a challenge from the Splitcoast Stampers forum to use one of the Hambo digi images. I enjoy sketch challenges, so I decided to play along with this one:

And this is what I made with this funny Blind Mice Hambo digi that you can find here.

This stamp cracks me up ;)

I felt like it was too empty on the left side of the card, so I added a big pink bow that was repurposed from a gift and now it looks like a big birthday present :) Sorry about the yellow tone to the pictures, for some reason the camera was really picking up on that and I couldn't find an angle to make it stop.

The border punch is from Martha Stewart. The cardstock is a mixture of PTI and SU. The circle was cut with a Nestabilities circle die.

I don't have anyone in particular in mind to receive this card, so I'll stick it in my stash, but when they do I think it will definitely get a laugh out of the recipient ;)