2014 Selman Christmas Cards

It's so hard to stay on top of blogging, but at least I started taking pictures of all the crafting I have been doing.

I always find it daunting to make a large amount of Christmas cards. I especially hate making a large amount of identical Christmas cards since I am hand making them. Kinda boring to make the same one a few dozen times. So, I discovered an alternative to producing a large amount of Christmas cards without redesigning each one, but still making each unique.

Using my lovely Silhouette Cameo, I designed a white Christmas window pane. We have "The Selman", "2014", a snowflake and last, but not least, Richard's favourite Canucks logo in each window pane. I mass produced the window pane. From there, I got to play around with different colour card bases and highlight coloured paper. Some of them I even embossed with Christmas designs using the Big Shot.

I was very happy with the results...same ideas for each, but each still very unique.

Hanging Christmas Stockings

I have been experimenting with other 3D card ideas. In this particular card, instead of gluing down my decorations, I decided to hang it, which allows it to stand out when it's displayed.

The card was embossed with a polka dot embossing folder with my Big Shot and the corners were punched out with the Martha Stewart Snowflake Corner

Using the Crop-a-dile Big  Bite, I added eyelets to the stockings, so that I can string up the stockings securely.

The stockings were designed and cut out on my Silhouette. Once the pieces were glued together, the stitches were hand drawn on with sharpies. I love my huge sharpies collection.

I was very happy how is turned out. A simple idea is really all you need for an adorable card. My co-worker loved this one because it's sooo her!

Waterfall Christmas Card

My first waterfall card, the Thank You Waterfall Card, for my co-worker Cristina was a success. Everyone at work loved it. Cristina loved it too.

Since then, I decided to make another waterfall card, this time for Christmas.
Using a very simple idea, this is what I came up with...

 

This card was made with:
- paper cutter
- scoring board
- paper
- stamp
- embossing powder

Christmas Card Galore

It's always hard to be ahead of the game...especially with Christmas Cards...ESPECIALLY hand made Christmas Cards...

It took a while, but I finally made enough to mail to my extended family in Edmonton and in the USA.

The mittens were designed and cut out using my Silhouette. The paw prints were with the use of a EK border punch.

Paw Print Mittens

 The "Happy Holidays" is actually a window message cutout designed and cutout using my Silhouette. The snowflakes were from a Martha Stewart Ribbon punch, where I cut all the snowflakes apart.

Happy Holidays Message Window - Snowflakes

 The Snowman, along with his scarf and hat were designed and cutout on my Silhouette. The corner snowflakes were made with a Martha Stewart snowflake corner punch.

Tri-Fold Snowman

 This card is my favourite! The mitten was designed and cutout on my Silhouette. The snowflakes were punched out with the use of a Martha Stewart snowflake border and corner punch set.

Snowflake Mitten

 The frame was punched with the Martha Stewart snowflake border and corner punch set. The Polar Bears were stamped then silver embossed.

Polar Bear Silver Emboss

 I was going with simple and clean with this card. The Holiday Message was copied from a stamp design I saw, which I copied in MS Word and printed out on my HP Colour Laser. The edge was punched out with a Martha Stewart snowflake border and corner punch set.

Holiday Message Tag

I finally opened up what I thought was white embossing powder for this card, but it turned out to be a pearl clear embossing powder. It still looked great...so this was completely decorated with wet stamp embossing along with a dry embossing border using my Big Shot.

Pearl and Gold Wet Emboss and Dry Embossing Border

 The red decoration plate was decorated with a Martha Stewart snowflake border and corner punch set. The snowman, along with his pipe, hat and scarf were designed and cutout on my Silhouette!

Snowman

 This card is cute....the Xmas is a message window cutout designed and cutout on my Silhouette, along with all the pieces of the Santa outfit! The corners were punched with a Martha Stewart snowflake corner punch.

Santa Claus Clothing

 This is a simple card...I'm still not too sure about it. I used a Martha Steward snowflake ribbon punch along with platinum vellum paper to make the snowflakes. The message was copied from a stamp and printed out on my HP Colour Laser Printer.

Snowflake ribbon - Holiday Message

I designed a special Christmas Card for Richard and I this season to give out to our friends...stay tune for the next blog post...pssst....it has to do with the Vancouver Canucks....hehehe...no surprise there!

Santa's Clothing Christmas Card

I had already made all the different pieces of Santa's clothing using my Silhouette last month. I was preparing for a huge card making day. That day never came, but because all the pieces were already there, it took only a few minutes to come up with an idea for a card and putting it all together!

I embossed a white 6" x 6" card with polka dots using an embossing folder and my Big Shot. Then I decided to just throw Santa's clothes on to the card....

Turned out perfectly...
A quick holiday saying stamped and embossed on the inside and it was ready to be signed and sent off.

Quick Tip
Come up with ideas for cards...like Santa clothing pieces, Snowman decoration pieces, tags, labels...make them all and store them away...then when the time comes, you have all the pieces there to put together a card, rather than spending the time to make everything for a card along with come up with ideas. When you see the pieces before your eyes, an idea will just pop out!

My First Interactive Christmas Card

I've always had a problem with K-I-S-S...keeping it simple is sooo not me, but I am trying. Less is more!

I recently purchased a book called "Interactive Cards" and I just love it! After a lot of humming and hawing, I finally made my first interactive Christmas Card.

This card was handmade without the use of my Silhouette or Big Shot. I was trying to keep things simple while making it seem not simple. So with a little cutting, stamping, embossing and gluing...voila!

This is one of my first attempts at wet embossing since buying all the embossing tools...not bad! I was quite proud of myself that the silver embossing powder showed up really well. Furthermore, I was quite surprised with what I thought was my white embossing powder was actually my pearl clear embossing powder. Still looks great!

When you pull the ribbon at the top of the card, the card pops up...

...to reveal the message.

It's sooo simple to make. I just love it and will probably make quite a few of these cards this season...time permitting!

Supplies used:
3 sheets of 6" x 6" paper
Ribbon
VersaMark Watermark Stamp Ink Pad
Christmas Stamps
Embossing Heat Gun
Papercutter
Glue

Congratulations - Farwell - Miss You

It's always hard to say goodbye to a co-worker, but it's easy when they are moving on to a great opportunity. To commemorate the next chapter in her career, I made the following card...

 

This card represents a few sports she loves, snowboarding, surfing and bicycling.

I attached all the pieces by a brad so that the pages can be rotated...it'll make it easy for all my co-workers to access the card pages to sign it.

Butterflies for the Bride

Jenny, my soon to be godsister-in-law, loves butterflies. Quite suitable, since she's going to be marrying my godbrother Yuan, who we have dubbed bumblebee because of his motorcylce and matching riding gear.

For Jenny's wedding shower I used my Silhouette SD to make her a bunch of butterflies for all the gals to write messages on for her...

Graduating Canucks Fan

Congratulations Michelle on your high school graduation!
Soo sorry your graduation was during a Vancouver Canucks Playoff game.
It's all okay...I'll cheer on Kesler for you.

Here's a little grdaution card made from my Silhouette SD for Michelle...
(The Orca was made using 2 different cutting layers...)