Christmas All Year

 Christmas 2022

I started my cards for this year, around July/August. This year I am also making for a Christmas Market in November so I have to be consistent and make most days till then! I decided to keep a card from each batch I make for my own stash. We'll see how that goes! Lol!

Again, I have chosen some retired sets and some new ones.

 

Let me know if you want to know if something is still current. You can find all the new stamps papers and supplies in either the 2022/23 Annual Catalogue or the 2022 Seasonal Catalogue.

 

Christmas 2021

  Here's a photo dump of all my 2021 cards for Christmas. Some are made with retired stamps, cos I NEVER get rid of Christmas stamps as a rule, and some were from the new catalogue for 2021/2022. I also picked some new seasonal stamps from the Seasonal Catalogue for 2021. The snowman was made with circle dies! I drew on his features with the black Journaling Pen.

I hope you enjoy these!

Christmas 2020

I plan to make more Christmas Rose cards and also some designer series paper from the Flowers for Every Season designer series paper. I also have Peaceful Boughs, Still Scenes and Perfectly Plaid to choose from!

The new Seasonal Mini catalogue has been out since August 3rd. It has Christmas supplies as well as supplies for a number of other occasions in it. It's beautiful! There's a new seasonal catalogue coming out in January 2021 though.

Let me know if you need a copy!

Now for some 2020 Christmas cards. First, these from Cherish the Season:

 

Now here's some ideas using For Unto Us as a sentiment. Most of this card is about the Toile Christmas DSP though. You can swap the DSP out and use a different sentiment for a different look or occasion.

Now for a Poinsettia Petals card:

This one I used Forever Fern as some of the elements:

Here's another using the Waterfront stamp set and a word from Peace and Joy:

Christmas 2019

 Perfectly Plaid Gift wallets!

 I used a chalk marker and Whisper White Craft ink to add highlights to this card that was directly stamped onto Crumb Cake cardstock.

Elfie looks very self satisfied here. It must be the day after Christmas, right?  Otherwise he would be too stressed to look so cheeky!

 

The Brightly Gleaming stamp set produced beautiful cards this year. Don't you love the  gold stars on the designer series paper too?

I made a number of cards with my Stamparatus this year, mainly wreath cards:

 The Christmas Rose Bundle got heavily used this year :) I couldn't stop creating with it and made my OnStage swaps with it too, seeing the event happened in November!

Christmas Rose Swap Cards

Christmas Rose Card

Christmas Rose Card

Christmas Rose card

You can see how I made traditional cards with the Real Red and gold embossed designer series paper. Then I used designer series paper (Brightly Gleaming) for some Christmas decoration projects. I ran classes tso people could make these:

Christmas star decorations

Christmas Star Decoration

Christmas Banner

Some paper folding and creasing was required to make our poinsettias. Our Simply Scored tools and Bone Folders came in very handy fro these decorations.

Christmas Poinsettia

 

Christmas 2018

Using the Stamparatus to make a stamped wreath.

 Doilies make a great background for a folded designer series paper Christmas tree.

 I again used the Stamparatus to create a perfectly stamped Buffalo Check background and stamp the three layers for the Christmas Tree

Embossing folders really step a card up!

 

Christmas 2017

 

Here's a quick and easy present card idea. I just used the Quilted Christmas designer series paper stack and a sentiment. You fold the front of the card back at the middle to make the opening, and cover it in dsp:

Here it is closed:

 

Now it is open:

The envelope is stamped with an image from Glamper Greetings.

I CASEd a number of ideas from this year's Seasonal Catalogue and modified some from the Annual catalogue too. Here's one I made with the Wise Men from Afar stamp set:

 This one was stamped only, directly onto the designer series paper (from the Quilted Christmas paper stack)

See how shiny gold embossing powder makes things?

This is the banner I made for our caravan with the Be Merry Kit. It looks great with a string of Christmas lights. You could use the 12 individual medallions as Christmas tree ornaments, gift tags etc:

The four immediately above cards were made with the Watercolour Christmas Project kit.

 

 Christmas 2016

 

September 2015

It seems like I start my Christmas cards around the same time each year, in spite of my good intentions to make them 'all year round'. Lol! This year i am enjoying the Dove of Peace stamp set from the new Occasions catalogue. It is fun to stamp and emboss, then colour with my Stampin' Write! markers. You could also experiment with sponging colour on this pretty bird. I might try that before Christmas. I have a couple of other ideas I want to try out too so will post them when I make them up.

Here's one of the coloured in series:

Here are some more ideas I played with:

October 2014

Now that the swap cards have all reached their homes, here are some close ups of the little house cards I made for it using the Holiday Homes stamps and framelits:

 

September 2014

While I may have dropped making Christmas cards for a few months, I am back in the groove with making and have a few to show you now:

Here are eight cards I made for a swap, using the Holiday Homes stamps and framelits. I will do close ups on my main page once all the cards have been given out to the swap group :) They were fun to make as each little house had a bit of character of its own once i had finished playing with it!

 Next I made some elegant cards inspired by Gina K. I watched a video of hers where partial embossing was done with a regular embossing folder. It was easy to do!

 Here's a closeup of the embossed detail on the card front. Isn't it nice? I used a retired stamp set and retired embossing folders but you can use any embossing folder to achieve a similar look.

 

February 2014

I was feeling crafty last night so went ahead and got a jump start on February's cards. I've had the Snowman set from Stampin' Up! (not available anymore!) for a few months and haven't ever used it, so last night I built a snowman card. I made a matching envelope for him too. He looked as cheerful as I thought he would! Lol!

There is a possibility that this stamp set MIGHT be in the new catalogue. Stampin' Up! sometimes carries over stamps from special catalogues. I hope he is. He is too much fun to play with.

The three cards have made have all followed a basic template - a circle cut or image for the card front. Don't they all look different? I had a few card bases cut in Baja Breeze as well so even the colours have been pretty similar, but they still look different form each other. You can always find a formula that works for you and change it up to match your season or occasion. It saves a  lot of thinking time I find.

Now I have time to think about another card for February. Be back later!

January 2014

Do you feel rushed at Christmas time? Me too! Do you get all these great craft ideas and run out of time to create your projects? That's me as well! Do you make a list and check it twice and throw it out? I do too! How do we fix this? Well, my solution is that I have decided to make Christmas craft projects all year 'round! I am going to take my time and really enjoy making my cards and hoem decor. Well, that is the plan.

The thing abotu goals is I usually make them too ambitious. Then I fail. So I thought about that and decided I would try to make it easy enough to achieve but still make a difference at the end of the year.

The first goal  I made was to decide I would make at least two cards a month and only do more if I get a chance. That way I should have 24 special cards ready to go at the end of the year. That would make a difference.

I also have been staring at an unfinished Advent Calendar Project for a loooooong time. I decided to put that on my lost of 'to dos'.

I want to make some special present tags too. That shoudl work, if i make a few when I don't have time to make a whole entire card.

And that was enough for me to put on my list for now! I will add more things if i get these goals crossed off my list before Christmas.

For January, I made the card goal! I made two entire cards with decorated envelopes. Here they are for you to see I kept my word:

 

The first card is made with a felt shape, retired Stampin' Up! fabric, glitter glue and sequins. I used  a retired sentiment. The scallops were cut with the scallop edged border punch (119882) and cut the circle out with the Circles Collection dies (130911). The white gel pen came in handy for the stitching. (105021). The cardstock is retired Baja Breeze and Pink Pirhouette.

The second card  is made with Perfect Plum ink and cardstock and Night of Navy ink. I silver embossed the retired image on Pink Pirhouette. I added a few white sequins and silver leaf charms i had in my stash. The radiating circle is done with a stencil. I just taped it to my card, then sponged it with Perfect Plum, then shifted the stencil and sponged again with Night of Navy. Then I made the envelope and stamped it before I forgot to.

So there we are. Two Christmas cards for January, all done! 

What are you going to do this year to make Christmas easier on you in November/December? I'd love to know what plans you have :)

Happy stampin'!