Six Months 'til Christmas Hop

Ho Ho Ho! Did you know, there is only six months to go! Christmas is just around the corner...have you started your holiday cards yet?

I'm participating in the Six Months 'til Christmas blog hop with a group of ladies who post holiday cards on the 25th of each month, all year long. Thanks so much for inviting me to play this month! I do love any reason to create Christmas cards.

This month was a photo inspiration (scroll down to see it). I was immediately drawn to the snowman and the plaid for my first card. These two cards are numbers 10 and 11 for my Project Christmas 2013.

I started with Pure Innocence Thanks Snow Much from My Favorite Things and stamped him with Memento Tuxedo Black onto X-Press It Blending Card. I wanted to do an "out-of-the-box" technique so I carefully trimmed around his hat and arm then I cut out the rectangle. I coloured him with copic markers and paper pieced his hat and scarf with patterns from the Simple Stories Handmade Holiday collection. I doodled a border around the image, inked the edges with Kraft Premium Dye Ink, then layered it onto some Kraft card stock.

The card base is Primitive Cream, then I added layers of Kraft and Paver Red. I used the Little Open Scallop Strip Die-namics to cut out the Kraft scallop.

The Jumbo Fishtail Banner STAX Die-namics was perfect for cutting out the Factory Green sentiment flag. I stamped the sentiment with versamark and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. I added a few rhinestone snowflakes (or rather they're more like snow balls, but let's pretend).

On the inside I stamped a sentiment from Clearly Sentimental about Christmas using Factory Green Premium Dye Ink and added another strip of plaid paper.

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For my second card I was inspired by the berries and branches on the plate, cups and teapot, and the lovely traditional holiday colours.

I started with a card base of Primitive Cream again and added layers of Kraft and Paver Red.

I used the Winter Wreath Die-namics to cut out the wreath from Kraft and Hot Fudge card stocks then layered them onto a patterned paper from the My Mind's Eye Holly Jolly collection. I inked the edges of the patterned paper with Kraft Premium Dye Ink before stitching it in place. Then I added some clear rhinestones for the berries and coloured them red with my R35 copic marker.

Along the bottom I used the Faux Crochet Border Die-namics to cut out the Hot Fudge piece then topped it with a Kraft grosgrain ribbon bow. I stamped a sentiment from Clearly Sentimental about Christmas along the bottom with versamark ink and embossed it with white powder.

On the inside I stamped another sentiment from Clearly Sentimental about Christmas using Hot Fudge Premium Dye Ink.

Hop on over and see what the rest of the ladies have created today:

Shari

Heather

Mary

Sara

Sally 

Sandy 

Karen  *** you are here ***

Here's the inspiration piece in case you want to play along.

Here are the supplies I used on the Enjoy the Season card:

Here are the supplies I used on the Joyful Christmas card:

Thanks for stopping by!
Karen