Keeping Christmas - September 2019 Edition

Hello there!  Welcome to this month's edition of Keeping Christmas!  There are several stops along the hop today and you should have started at Kelly Lunceford's Blog.  I'll have the full list of blog links for you below.

In case you haven't been here before, the Keeping Christmas Hop was developed to give you ideas, tips, and tricks to make a few cards each month so that when December1st comes around, you are ready to mail your holiday cards to family and friends.

Way back in April, I created a single card for the Keeping Christmas Hop as time was short for me because of the number of grandkids, nieces, and nephews who were graduating in May or had a significant birthday that month.  I also created an unusual sized card that month and I really loved the look.

Around that same time, I saw a die used on a card that was similar in size and shape.  After a little investigating, I purchased a set of dies for creating this size and shape of card that I just loved, so I splurged and got them from somewhere in Europe.  It took a couple of weeks for the dies to arrive and they had been sitting on my desk since around the middle of July.  I finally got them out and used them.  The card builder panel dies are from Paper Discovery, but as far as I know, they are not available in the US.  They are available at a store called Craft Stash if you want to check them out.  Keep in mind, that this does not make a standard A2 or A7 Card so I also purchased special #8 sized envelopes for mailing.   

The main thing I liked about this set was the insert panel and the card that was not a typical size.  I like this particular insert so much that I have not tried any of the other ones yet. There are inserts for diagonal stripes, tall stripes, short stripes, and even plaid.  There are also dies to cut the paper in the exact size to make the card, but since I use high-quality cardstock, I find it easier to cut my own in a 7 x 8 size, scoring it at 3.5 inches. This makes a card that is 3.5 by 8 inches and is different from most of the A2 sized cards that I usually make.  I use the extra piece of cardstock for the other elements on the card as you will see shortly.  This is really the only information that you need to know in order to recreate this card.  I searched for them on Amazon, but they are not available.  I can find plenty of items right here in the US but this set of dies was different than anything I had seen.

This particular color combination is one of my favorites and pairs Pinefeather Cardstock with Tropical Teal Cardstock from Papertrey Ink.  The shadow layer for the word die is cut from Stampers Select Vellum, also from Papertrey.  I haven't decided if I'm going to add "In The Magic of Christmas" to the word die or not so I tried to leave room to add that on most of these cards.

If you have a large supply of cardstock scraps like I do, this was a great way to get some use out of them.  As you'll soon see from my images, I made several variations of this same card.    I still have plenty of cardstock scraps left to make many more.  I usually make about 3 or 4 at the same time and add them to my growing stack of holiday cards and tags.

You could make these cards in any number of color combinations, adding touches of metallics, shimmer cardstock, or other specialty papers.  Since I plan to make all of my personal cards in this size this year, I went ahead and ordered a package of #8 envelopes to mail them in as well.  That is not a standard size, so be prepared to have some difficulty finding them if you choose to do that.  I didn't think that part through beforehand, so I want you to know going in, that they may be hard to find.

My daughter loves blue with silver and white at Christmas so of course, I used that combination a couple of times.  

This card uses shimmer cardstock from PaperPapers.com in Electic Blue, and Iceberg with Silver Cardstock for the insert.  

This card uses Pinefeather with Scarlet Jewel Cardstock, from Papertrey Ink/Ink to Paper.

This card uses Lovely Lady, Pinefeather, and Ocean Tides with gold metallic cardstock.  

Here I used Pure Poppy with Pinefeather and some New Leaf Ink Blending on Linen Cardstock.  I love the texture these leaves and poinsettias have on them.  

This card uses Vintage Jadeite with Pure Poppy.  

This card uses Vintage Jadeite with Hawaiian Shores, Autumn Rose and Ocean Tides for the leaves. 

Another personal favorite combination is Hawaiian Shores with Lovely Lady, Autumn Rose, and the same New Leaf Ink Blended Linen Texture cardstock from Papertrey Ink.  

Here we have Ocean Tides with Scarlet Jewel Cardstock.  

This card uses Pinefeather Cardstock with Red Satin Shimmer Cardstock from PaperPapers.com.  

As always, you can also use white card bases by making your own.  I usually prefer a white card base, but on this particular style of card, I prefer them on the colored cardstock.  If any of the cardstock is a dark color, I just pop a white insert inside for my note.  So far, I have 12 of these cards made, but it's time to move on to other designs and spread the love among my supplies. 

Don't forget to check out all the stop along the hop and leave each of the ladies some love.  

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

Nancy Guse

Thanks for stopping by today!  Only two more months of Keeping Christmas ideas for this year and then it will be time to mail out your cards.  Christmas is just 90 days away.  Wow, that year flew by, didn't it?  

Keeping Christmas - January 2020 Edition

Hello there!  It’s the 25th of the month and I have my first Christmas Cards of the year on my blog today for our Monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop.  Kelly Lunceford started this tradition on her blog many months ago (February 25, 2017) and eventually the former "The Challenge" designers came to be a part of it.  We share Christmas cards and projects with you on the 25th of each month to show you different ideas, techniques or projects to help you get a jump start on your Holiday cards and tags for the coming year.  All of the designers have projects to share with you today.  We have 3 new members this year and I know they are names you’ll recognize!  We are joined by Carol Hintermeier, Nancy Penir and Marybeth Lopez this year! Here is the Blog Roll:

Kelly Lunceford (Creator)

Vicki Finger

Claire Broadwater

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Nancy Guse

Marybeth Lopez

Nancy Penir

Carol Hintermeier

I have a single card for you today.  I normally try to do multiple cards or projects, but I haven't had much time in the last several weeks.  We did a lot of traveling in the weeks before and after Christmas and we are getting ready to go on a short vacation the first of February so I'm scrambling slightly to get my work done before we leave.  I've also made several cards for other things as well.  We lost my Mother-In-Law between Christmas and New Years Day, so I had several "Thank You" cards to make for some of the special people who helped as we were making arrangements to say goodbye.  So I've been creating, just not necessarily on Design Team projects.

I got this beautiful Stitched Poinsettia Die from Pretty Pink Posh just a few weeks before Christmas, but since I was finished with all of my cards, I hadn't had a chance to use it yet.  I set it aside, but still on my desk to use for this month's card.

I used some Pure Poppy Cardstock to die cut the bloom with Ripe Avocado for the leaves. I used some iridescent Gold Shimmer Mist on the cardstock once I die cut it and let that dry.  I wanted something a little less traditional for the card base and I chose to use Aqua Mist Cardstock.  The label I used is an old favorite.  I got it at the Dallas Scrapbook Expo in 2006 at the Spellbinders Booth.  It is a bookplate label that has been unavailable for many years.  I still love it and it both cuts and embosses!  It embosses much better if you mist the cardstock from the backside before you run it through with an embossing mat. Then, leaving the paper in the die, I also inked it up through the openings to add the colored detail using Aqua Mist Ink. This particular Spellbinders die can also be used as a stencil for the details.  I think most of their dies work like that, but I'm not positive.

I just wanted to make something simple for this month.  I will be gone for most of February and will just be getting back in time to work on next month's Keeping Christmas Blog Hop Projects. The sentiment that I used here is from the Papertrey Ink "Happiest of Holidays".  I used Versamark to ink it up and then heat embossed it with Simon Says Stamp Antique Gold Embossing Powder which continues to be my favorite.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a great month and get a jump start on your holiday cards!  

Keeping Christmas & Twelve Days of Holiday Cards - Day Eight + Giveaway

Hello!  I'm so glad you stopped by today.  Today's post is a two-fer and that's always cause to celebrate in my book.  It allows me to share with more than my regular crowd of folks who visit. Today is Day Eight of the Twelve Days of Holiday Cards and it is also the monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop.  Christmas is officially one month away!  All of the ladies have projects to share with you today.

Occasionally, I take great pleasure in sitting down, gathering a few products and playing around to create a really over the top beautiful card. This is not what I would consider to be traditional Christmas colors, which gives me a sweet little bit of additional joy. I love to send cards that have something unexpected whether it's bling or shimmer or color.  During the rest of the year, any colors work but I love playing around with all of the colors.  I realized that I am going to have to find a source for this gorgeous pearlized cardstock that matches the Gina K Designs Fresh Asparagus ink.  It is just the perfect color for so many types of foliage.  I have just one 5 x 7 sheet left so I need to find a replacement soon.   I tried a few claiming to be moss green, but they just look dull in photos.  I think this is one time when I could really use a pearlized cardstock versus the shimmer that I have such great love for. The high shimmer makes it difficult to photograph and also difficult to get accurate color representation in my photos.

Anyhow, on to today's project.  Normally, I try to do multiples of my project for Keeping Christmas,  but today I have a single card for you.  I really loved the Scribble Holly Trio Outline that I used on yesterday's card, so I wanted to figure out a way to use it with a few other dies to create a new look.

I have several different dies in use today, and they are all from Poppy Stamps except for the sentiment.  I have the Scribble Holly Trio, Blooming Poinsettia, Small Blooming Poinsettia, and the Holly Vine Sidekick Frame and Stencil.  I am crazy over the coordinating stencil as it allows me to add another color to whatever color I cut my cardstock from.  In this case, I cut it from some peach pearlized paper (which came from a pretty old Die Cuts with a View Mat Stack) and then I used the Stencil to go over just the holly leaves with some Gina K Designs Fresh Asparagus ink using one of my Taylored Expressions Blending Brushes.  Once the ink was dry, I attached the frame to a card base made from Gina K Designs Heavy Base Weight White Cardstock.  This white is a bit softer than my usual Cougar Super Smooth Digital White Cardstock, so it has a slightly warmer tone which paired well with the more earthy tones of the peach and green.

I wanted to see what would happen if I paired up the Poinsettias with the Scribble Holly Trio Outlines so I die cut all of my pieces and assembled the blooms.  Next, I played with placement and I was thinking the large bloom might be too large, but once I had the layout figure out, I liked the size so I went for it.  I am anxious to make more cards using these beautiful poinsettias in my favorite Shine Red Satin cardstock.  I love using Poinsettias for my December Birthday Cards, so I love that I have a few different styles now.

I used Studio Katia Gold Foiled Pearls for all of the little berries and the flower centers.  I also use my Teflon Bone Folder to kind of curl the petals.  I take the pointed end, which on mine is super smooth because I've used it so much, and holding the petal at the base, pull kind of like if you were curling ribbon only not so hard.  If you pull too hard, you'll break the petal off at the base.  Once I glue the flowers in place and they have dried, then I pop up the petals again.

For the Scribble Holly Trio I did the same thing I did previously; die cut one from gold and one from green and then inlaid the green pieces into the gold outline.  Then carefully placed into my 5-inch Xyron and ran it through.  Don't forget to go all the way around with an embossing stylus or similar tool before you take the top cellophane layer off so you don't get adhesive strings.

I was going to put a bit of foam tape under the tips of the holly leaves,  but I was so enchanted with blooms that I forgot until I had already pressed them down.  Since I use Permanent Xyron Adhesive, there is no going back so I'll have to try that another time.

Here is the list of blogs along the "Keeping Christmas" Hop.  Be sure to leave some love for everyone as we work hard to bring you content on this monthly hop. This is our last blog hop for the year as we take Christmas Day off.  We'll be back in January with a few new team members helping you get started on next year's cards and projects.

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcomb

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

Nancy Guse

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Be sure to comment for your chance to win one of the daily prizes for the Twelve Days Of Holiday Cards.  All winners will be announced on November 30th here on my blog.  I'll be back tomorrow for Day Nine of the Twelve Days of Holiday Cards.   

Affiliate Links may be used at no additional cost to you.

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Poppy Stamps - Blooming Poinsettia Shop at: SSS	Poppy Stamps - Small Blooming Poinsettia Shop at: SSS	Poppy Stamps - Holly Vine Frame and Stencil Shop at: SSS	Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS
ScraPerfect No Clog Tip for Ranger Multi Medium Matte Shop at: SSS	Teflon Bone Folder Shop at: SSS	Tim Holtz Tonic Paper Trimmer Shop at: SSS	Tonic 6 Inch Personal Trimmer Shop at: SSS
Xyron Create-A-Sticker - 5 inch Shop at: SSS	Xyron Create-A-Sticker - 5-Inch Refill Shop at: SSS

January 2019 Keeping Christmas Blog Hop

Hello there!  I have my first round of Christmas cards for the year on my blog today for our Monthly Keeping Christmas Blog Hop.  Kelly Lunceford started this many months ago (February 25, 2017) and eventually the former "The Challenge" designers came to be a part of it.  We share Christmas cards and projects with you on the 25th of each month to show you different ideas, techniques or projects to help you get a jump start on your Holiday cards and tags for the coming year.

I think it was right after Christmas that Concord & 9th had a sale and I picked up a few things that I had been wanting.  One of them was the Deck the Halls Turnabout Stamp.  Since I make Christmas Cards all year long, I knew I would be able to use it, so I went ahead and ordered it.  I must say, I love this even more than I thought I would!  The stamp looks like the image on the right.  You rotate it three more times after your initial stamping to get a completed background panel.  Isn't this just incredible?  This is one of the biggest innovations in the stamping industry in the last couple of years.  And let's face it - with stamps, innovation if a pretty big thing.  Concord & 9th came up with this brilliant idea and I have 4 or five of this style of stamps from them.  They have several styles and bundles available, but their January Release sold out so quickly that those are currently not available.  The thing I most want right now is the templates that go with the turnabouts but even those are completely sold out.  This is not a bad problem to have if you are a stamp company!  They've already ordered more so just sign up for the e-mail notification and you'll know when that is back in stock.

You can use a single ink color or multiple ink colors, or even heat emboss any or all of the layers.  I didn't try that today, but it's on my "to try" list for sure!

For the first group of cards today, I used four different colors on each background.  For the second batch of cards, I stuck with a monochromatic look and used inks from  Papertrey, Altenew and Gina K Designs.  Since Altenew Inks come in color families, they are perfect for this technique.  I'll share each of the colors as I go along so that you can replicate them if you like.  I really love the coral one even though it has non-traditional colors.

As much as I love adding dimension on my cards, they cost quite a bit more to send so when creating the cards that I mail or that my Sisters-In-Law mail, I try to keep them fairly flat.  I did add a poinsettia to each one using the Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia Dies.

For these first three cards, I used 4 different colors.  I always end up with an odd number of cards because I do a test run first.  That is the first card on the left here.  The colors I used on this one are Papertrey Ink, Vintage Jadeite, Pure Poppy, Pinefeather, and Scarlet Jewel.  The middle card also uses Papertrey Ink'ss in Sweet Blush, Autumn Rose, and Ocean Tides with Gina K Designs Christmas Pine.  The Christmas Pine has a little less black in it than Pinefeather, making it a little more green.  The last card on the right-hand side is Altenew Coral Berry, Ruby Red, Sweet Leaf, and Just Green.

The first card on the left uses all Gina K Designs inks in Sea Glass, Ocean Mist, Turquoise Sea and Blue Lagoon.  Next up we have the Sweet Dreams Collection of inks from Altenew; Dew Drops, Aqualicious, Teal Cave and Galactic Stream.  The third card uses Gina K Designs in Powder Blue, Blue Raspberry, Blue Denim and In The Navy.  The last card uses Papertrey Ink's Lilac Grace, Lavender Moon, Amethyst Allure and Gina K Design's Plum Punch.

Here's a close up for you of a few of the cards.  Using my MISTI, I heat embossed the sentiment 3 times on each card.  I used Antique Gold Embossing Powder from Simon Says Stamp for all but one of the cards.

I think this is my favorite of the group.  I like the slightly larger poinsettia and the deep rich color of the 4th layer.

For the Blue Monochromatic Card, I used Silver Embossing Powder but it definitely doesn't stand out as much as the gold.  Unless I am using dark cardstock, I pretty much never like Silver Embossing Powder but it's good to try new things once in a while.

The Merry Christmas greeting came from the Concord & 9th Very Merry Sentiments stamp set.  I wish they had made a coordinating die but maybe another time they will.  I love the size and style of this font!  This was a quick way to make my own designer paper for Holiday Cards and once that was done, assembly was fairly easy.  Heat embossing three layers took the most time of anything for sure!  It requires a lot of patience, care, and powder tool to get it in the same spot each time!  But I do love how bold it looks.  I tried out some large particle embossing powder, but that was not a good thing to do.  I'll go into the why's of that in another post sometime.

If you haven't seen the genius of the Turnabout Stamps from Concord & 9th, be sure to stop by their store and check out the video tutorials they have here.  In addition to that, Jennifer McGuire has several on her YouTube Channel here.  That links to her turnabout playlist and right now there are 15 videos there!

Thank you so much for stopping by today.   Here are all the stops on the hop!

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger (You are Here)
Nancy Guse

I hope you enjoy all of the projects for today!  

Keeping Christmas

Hello Everyone! I am so excited to be here for this month's Keeping Christmas Blog Hop that we hold on the 25th of each month except in December.  I am the last stop on the hop but here are the links to everyone who is participating.

Kelly Lunceford

Anita Madden

Broni Holcombe (Off this month due to "Florence")

Claire Broadwater

Julee Tilman

Kim Heggins

Lori Tecler

Nance Salkeld

Nina Forsyth

Rachel Bergfeld

Vicki Finger (You are Here)

I have been having so much fun playing with a variety of stamp using the Gina K Designs Wreath Builder Templates.  I have gotten the Fall or Winter Stamps yet so I've been using what I do have.  I was playing around with the A2 version of this to make a full-sized card and learned a few tricks along the way so that if you don't have the templates, you can still do a few things to help give the appearance of the Wreath or symmetrical design using a Misti.  For some things. I still like using the templates, so I cut my cardstock down to 4 x 5.25 inches.  

You can find a video on the Stamp TV YouTube Channel here in case you are interested.  I like the little square cards but if you put them in a square envelope, it costs more to mail them so I like to still have the normal A2 Sized Card base without having to cut my stamped panel.  So with some help from Gina K's video, I have been doing a lot of experimentation and finding what works for me.

Here is a similar design with a little bit different color.  I used Dusty Rose and Plum Punch here in a similar style.

Both of the decorative stamps sets I used for these cards are no longer available, but it's always good to find new ways to use older products and the little holly and berries from the Enclosed: Bell is a long time favorite.  In fact, I've never even used the Bell Die at all.  The other stamps were from Holiday Photo Finishers and the Sentiment is from Deck the Halls which is still available in the Papertrey Store.

Because I used Gina K Designs Inks, I wanted to use the coordinating cardstock for my card bases. This is Gina K Designs Heavy Base Weight White, Cherry Red, and Fresh Asparagus.

As a little bonus, I made several Christmas Cards using the same Holly Stamps from Enclosed: Bell and posted these yesterday on my Instagram Account.

These cards feature products from Papertrey Ink including the Scallop Stackers Large and Medium Dies along with Basic Bookmark #3.  I always create the bookmarks by die cutting one from white cardstock and the other from whatever other paper I wanted to use.  I glue them back to back so that they are finished on either side. In this case, the paper was from a Mat Stack that I got during Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year.  It was a perfect fit for the little Holly Leaves.  The embossed center piece is from Holiday Photo Finishers.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy hopping around to all the blogs and seeing their Keeping Christmas projects.