2014 Holiday Card Line - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Collection

This was a very special project; using the G45 "Twas the Night Before Christmas " Collection, I did a 13-card set, with matching gift tags.  One with the whole poem (and tag), and then a card (and tag) for each day!  I really liked how versatile this set is - they can be used for gifts or hung as a banner, and I have seen tags like these used as tree ornaments!  For someone who likes to be a "coordinated" gift-giver, this is an awesome set - to use for yourself or give as a gift!

2014 Holiday Card Collection - A More Informal Line

So - then I took some of the same materials from Anna Griffin, HOTP Dazzles, and some G45, and did a few less formal cards - they are a little smaller, too (5.5" X 4.25").

Holiday Cards 2014 - The Formal Line

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to recommit myself to this blog!  So let's just go ahead and get started and show you what I got up to for this season!  This year, I did 3 main Holiday Collections, plus some other custom orders, a formal line, using primarily Anna Griffin products, a more informal line, using a combination of Anna's lines, G45, and some Authentique.  Of course, there are always bits and pieces of other things - this year I used a lot of Ranger Ink Stickles Glitter, and HOTP Dazzles - I love my Dazzles!

I'll post each line separately, for organization's sake!

Here is the formal line:

 

Happy Halloween!

Confession:  Halloween is not my favorite holiday; my participation has waxed and waned over the years.  I do love giving out candy - seeing all the cute costumes!  After Harry Potter became popular, I started decorating mainly with spiders.... <smile>

A few years ago, however, a friend began asking me to make Halloween cards for her.  It was the first request I had ever had!  So, I have been doing it for about 3 years now, and starting to get into the various styles.  Last post, I shared the set I made with the Graphic 45 Steampunk Collection - it really captured my favorite style!  I thought I would share the other cards I made - my friend inspired me to send a few myself!

 

I made this one for my nephew Russell - we spent a morning crafting together and this uses images he liked working with!

 

 

 

I made this one for my nephew Raymond, a newly-minted teen who doesn't trick or treat any more, but still deserves to celebrate!

 

 

This card I made for my friend who started all this - I thought she deserved to get a card, too!

 

 

 

This one uses a Martha Stewart 4x6 card stock sheet as the "topper" - the bats and pumpkin are embossed.

 

Another take on the same theme - I love the ghost - stamped on black card stock, embossed with white and added googly-eyes!  The tag is done on a resist card stock - love it in black!

 

I took the tines off the witches hat brad and just glued it on the edge of the tag; love the white felt ghost!  I like the smoky effect on the tag - I used a gray pan pastel to edge it.

 

It was fun to do those different takes on the same theme - and my friend loved these as a set!

 

All of these were made with the leftovers from the Graphic 45 set and some Martha Stewart thrown in.  I also used a lot of Cricut images, mostly from the Theresa Collins Chic and Scary cartridge and the October 31st set - both I use digitally in the Cricut Craft Room (have you trued that out yet? - fun!)  Some of the little "ornament"-type embellishments were from Reflections.

 

 

Now - it is time to clean out the craft studio and get out the HOLIDAYS!  YAY!  I found a huge haul at the Goodwill last spring - someone had gotten rid of a huge amount of holiday craft stuff - and much of it not even opened. I got almost 2 grocery bags FULL of stuff for under $10 - awesome!  I put it all away in a box and now I get to open it and play!

 

 

Stay tuned for Holiday Fun!

 

 



Great Anna Griffin Giveaway!

Head over to this site:    http://northridgepublishing.com/2013/10/friday-giveaway-anna-griffin/
For a chance to win an awesome Anna G. Holiday a Card Kit!  It is gorgeous!

Halloween Cards with Graphics 45 Steampunk Line

About mid-September, I started to get an itch for fall and its holidays.  So I dug out a gift card I had yet to spend and headed off to the only paper crafting store left in  Seattle - Impress Stamps at the UVillage.  It was early, but they had gotten in some of the Graphics 45 Steampunk Halloween collection and I snagged several wonderful sheets.  I just love everything this company does - the colors are so rich and yummy!

One of the 12x12 sheets was actually a set of six, 4x6 "cards" and I wanted to do a set of cards with them.  I am not into the gory and violent side of Halloween - and I find this line to be a very sophisticated take, so it was really fun to work with!  I also played around with making my own 3-D embellishments, mostly using Cricut images from several Halloween cartridges.  I am still experimenting, but love making my own embellishments!  Mostly, though, I kept them simple, because I really loved the cards themselves and wanted to highlight them, not hide them under a bunch of layers and embellishments.

So, here is the set of 6 cards. I made these based on the cards "toppers" from this one sheet, as well as a couple other sheets from this line and and a couple others as well. There is a more complete list of supplies at the end of this post. I really had a blast playing around with these!

 

I love the Dazzles border down the left side!

 

It's hard to tell here, but I used glitter and other gel pens to highlight her hat, and Glossy Accents to cover the pendant at her neck.

 

The skeleton is stamped and heat embossed in white on black cardstock, then (somewhat) fussy-cut.  I love the little Dazzles spider hanging down from the web backing the potion embellishment!

 

I need to learn to take better photos - you can hardly see the Glossy Accents on the spiderweb, which really does make it stand out.  Also, the butterfly is actually a colored-in Dazzle, cut out and layered on top of the one printed on the card (I just matched the colors!)

 

Both the web in the corner and the cauldron embellishment come from Cricut images; the latter was layered and colored with micro-glitter.

 

Another Cricut image on the bottom; the corner piece was a miscellaneous embellishment from My Mind's Eye.  The ribbon was from a Recollections package.

 

 

Let's see, I used:

 

Graphics 45 Steampunk Halloween Collection as the card toppers and for the layering papers I used: Martha Stewart Halloween 6x6 mat pad, a 12x12 sheet of Pebbles (Tricks and Treats Collection), and some pages from the October section of Recollections' All Seasons 12x12 paper pad (from last year).

 

Most of the embellishments came from Cricut images (sorry, I didn't keep track of what came from where); also used: Jolee's Boutique, My Mind's Eye, Recollections, and Hot Off the Press (HOTP) Dazzles (can you tells I love those?!)

 

So now I am almost done with Halloween and getting ready to get out all the winter and Christmas stuff!  I had a LOT left from last year and have collected some things over the past year to add to it.  I see new lines coming out and wish I could find a way to afford another shopping trip.  Instead, I am entering lots of giveaways on blogs and FaceBook pages of my favorite brands and sites.  Who knows, maybe I'll win something!

 

Happy Haunting All!