Hark the Herald Angels Sing - Christmas Card

We've had the most beautiful Indian summer here in Missouri. Most of our days have been unseasonably warm and sunny, but a chill is in the air now as we get ready for November. I'm never ready to let go of the warmth and beauty of early fall, but "to everything there is a season." The way it looks right now in my craft area, with lots of Christmas cards and tags, you'd think I'm ready to jump into December. I've tried to start using up some of my collected Christmas paper, but no matter how many cards I make, there's still more paper. 

Here are two I made using CTMH "Wonderland" papers from a couple of years ago. The first one brings back fond memories of leading the music in our Christmas program at Blue Ridge Christian School in 1975. I can't sing this song without remembering those dear children singing it with me. What a blessing it was to teach in that school.

I love the angel image! It's now my favorite! I embossed the sentiment with silver, cut a snowflake using Cricut Art Philosophy, p. 22, and added bitty sparkles on the tips and a silver glitter brad in the center. A tiny bit of scallop punched silver glitter cardstock on the edge made the silver trio complete. (The angel and sentiment come from one of the CTMH Hostess Rewards stamps. You can see it in the Idea Book on my website. Instead of costing $13.95 it's only $8.00 for a hostess with $150 in sales. if you're interested, you can email me.)

Christmas at Sweet Stampin' - Snowflakes
The Crafter's Café #88 - Things with wings
Crafty Creations #275 - Brads, buttons or bows ( my large silver brad)
Fab 'n' Funky #235 - Christmas
My Perfect Life Festive 48 - Wk. 42 - Christmas
Word Art Wednesday #156 - anything...uplifting

Here's my second card using the Wonderland paper pack and a retired stamp set of the Nativity of Christ.

May we all work to make Peace on Earth a reality. I really want to share the real meaning of Christmas with family and friends as I send them Christmas cards this year. I also hope that they don't keep the Christ of Christmas in a manger, but that they'll accept Him as the sinless Son of God our Creator, who came to die on the cross for our sins that we might make Him the Lord of our lives and accept His gift of salvation from the punishment for our sins and receive eternal life with Him. As the song says, "Glory to the "Newborn" King! Peace on Earth and Mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled!"

ODBD Shining the Light Challenge 215- Great Is Thy Faithfulness

I was looking at stamp sets from Our Daily Bread Designs. Once I looked at this stamp from Scripture Collection 1, I've been singing one of my favorite hymns, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." If you're not familiar with it you can see the lyrics and listen to this timeless hymn on youtube. Just as the hymn says "there is no shadow of turning with thee...Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever will be. . . Morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. . ."  It is reassuring to know that as we see changes in our lives, God's love and watch-care never change.  He is always watching over us, showing His mercy and love for every new situation or problem. I'm sure this great hymn came from the verse I used. The version says, "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord's Great Love we are not consumed. For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness!" Lamentations 3:21-23


I often find hymns or scriptures that keep playing over and over in my mind as I go through my day. I truly believe that's one of the ways God's spirit speaks to my spirit and mind to focus on something in that verse. They also always encourage me, so I made this card of encouragement for someone else using this verse.

I used a glossy green pattern card base with a strip of glossy Lagoon CTMH Paper Fundamental and Black Glitter cardstock. Here is a close-up of the Lagoon cardstock which shows the glossy pattern.

 

The other side of the glossy cardstock has the same design in Lagoon and White, NOT embossed or glossy:

The two flowers are from retired CTMH ribbon. Also, I love making bows out of the woven edged organdy ribbon. I stamped the top and bottom edges of the Spellbinders Label 9 using a leafy branch from this CTMH "Lifetime of Happiness" stamp set:

 Thank you for visiting my card of encouragement using this lovely scripture stamp from Our Daily Bread Designs. My computer wouldn't let me give you a link to the store or specific stamp set, but you can find the link on the right side of their blog. In a world that's always changing, may God bless you and help you rely on Him in changing times.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Anything Goes with a Twist #3 - twist- shimmer and shine

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - October-anything with patterned paper

Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light Challenge #215 - use any ODBD stamp set

Really Reasonable Ribbon #105 - anything goes with ribbon

Sister Act Card Challenge - anything

Word Art Wednesday #154 - anything goes with ODBD stamp

Mojo Monday #367 Snowhaven Christmas Joy

Whenever I ask my adult children if they heard about this or that on the news, they usually reply, "No, Mom. The news is too depressing." Somehow I remain a news-a-holic, wanting to stay informed. I prefer to know what is happening and to pray for the countries, leaders, situations, victims, and injured.
In a world riddled with trouble, I also find it uplifting to focus on sharing something positive with family and friends. I decided that this week I'm focusing on the joys of Christmas, making cards and layouts. The moment I saw the sketch on Mojo Monday this week, I envisioned using the Snowhaven papers and a new stamp, Merriest Christmas. 

I wanted this card to look fairly basic and "clean." I also wanted it to be 6 1/2" x 5" black card base so I cut the Cranberry background mat 6 1/4" x 4 3/4" and each strip 4" x 1 1/8" and punched two black dotted circles with my 1 1/8" circle punch and cut them in half.  The white strip was 2" x 4 1/2." The really fun part was stamping the sentiment in two colors using my favorite masking technique. I used scotch tape to cover "Joy" while I inked "Christmas" with black. I pulled off the tape and stamped, cleaning the ink off afterwards. Then I taped the word "Christmas" while I inked "joy" with Cranberry ink, pulled off the tape and stamped. The aqua dotted ribbon and the poinsettia are retired CTMH embellishments from a few years ago. I've been sorting and organizing forgotten supplies and I definitely need to use them up!

Thank you for visiting. May God give bless you with peace and joy when life seems troubled. May He bless you as you share your creations with family and friends.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Crafty Hazelnut’s Christmas Challenge Extra - anything goes Christmas
My Perfect Life  - anything goes that's Christmas
Crimbo Crackers - #67 - anything goes Christmas
Mojo Monday #367- sketch
The Crafty Blogger's Network - Christmas
Completely Christmas #33 - anything goes with option-poinsettias

Cricut Artfully Sent Fall Birthday Swing Card

I have several friends who have birthdays in October. They are all the oldest child in the family like I am and we share many personality traits, likes, and dislikes. This is one of my birthday cards for an October friend.  We're all turning 65, going on 18 (ok, maybe 28). A recent TV news report said that we share genetic similarities with our friends. I can see that with mine!

I chose this reversible paper from the CTMH Scaredy Cat paper pack so that the leaf would be cut so that it would be orange. I outlined it with gold glitter gel and tried something different with a swing card. I added a panel of Scaredy Cat gypsy colored paper framed with gold glitter paper, gluing it behind the first fold so that I could add a larger sentiment behind it.  I added a strip of Sunset Chevron Washi Tape to the bottom.

Here's the page (p.42) used to make the card using Cricut Artfully Sent. I didn't include the inside panel shown on this page.

I combined three sentiments from the stamp set Your Own Kind of Wonderful.

 

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Always Something Creative #84 - fall/Halloween
Brown Sugar #114 - autumn/fall
Crafty Creations #273 - orange
Die Cut Divas - Change of Seasons - fall
Frosted Designs Friday Challenge - Fall
Ruby's Rainbow #89 - autumn leaves
Simply Create Too #71 - Special Occasion
Wags 'N' Whiskers #139 - fall colors

Cricut Artfully Sent and Home for the Holidays Stamp of the Month

I had fun today playing with the October Stamp of the Month. The shapes for the stamps are cut using the Cricut Art Philosophy, but I couldn't resist adding backgrounds with the new Cricut Artfully Sent. 

This one is the snowflake "Sleeve" from page 49 and is backed with silver glitter paper.

It has strips of paper from CTMH Snowhaven. The ribbon is one of the specials this month - free with a $50 order. Before attaching the stamped shape, I cut the same shape 1/4" bigger in black for more contrast.

I'm sharing this card with Love To Create Challenge #135 - Ribbon - because this chunky ribbon seemed to set off the card when I added it. I'm also sharing it with Christmas Stampin' All Year #31 - Lots of Snowflakes and Completely Christmas #31 - anything Christmas.

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This card didn't photograph well. The light blue inked area has snowflakes in the design. I added silver sequins topped with sparkles on top of the snowflakes that were cut out of the card base above. 

This card was made using the card sketch from Try Stamping on Tuesdays Challenge #187, turned horizontally:

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This next card uses the "Joy" pocket card as the Black cut-out "Joy" sentiment from Artfully Sent, p.45. 

The gray baker's twine has a silver thread that runs through it, perfect for this Christmas paper. This card uses three different papers from the Snowhaven paper pack, so I'm sharing it with this week's challenge at  Jingle Belles to use 3 different papers.  I'm also sharing it with Holly Jolly Christmas Challenge - anything goes Christmas.

Here is the display board for this Stamp of the Month and a close-up of the stamp set.

This stamp set also has two tags. I used the "Home for the holidays" tag on two of the decorated Designer Creations Slate Paper Bags.

Thank you for visiting! October is definitely time to seriously start Christmas cards! I hope this gave you a few ideas! May God bless you as you share your art with friends and family!

Artfully Sent Yuletide Swing Card

I haven't posted for two weeks thanks to internet and health issues. I think we finally resolved the first. It's hard to have internet when you live in the country too far from any town. As for the health issues, this aging body seems to have its own agenda that is sometimes relieved or distracted by creating and sometimes not. During that time I decided I wouldn't be able to continue being on the creative team for Doodle Pantry, although I dearly love Laurie, her art, and the team members. (I know they'll benefit with someone more reliable.) I will still highlight projects made with the fun images from Doodle Pantry!

I was also afraid I wouldn't be able to use my Cricut Create either, since it uses internet to operate. I was so relieved to get internet issues resolved, so I've started making cards with the new Cricut Artfully Sent cartridge. This is one of the swing cards. Each page in the cartridge book has a pop-up card and a swing card. This one is on page 34 (shift<V>) and includes the wreath shape. I cut the card at 5.5" using the CTMH Yuletide Carol paper. I used Cricut Artiste to cut the title shape for the stamp, "Holiday Tags." Dots of Bronze Glitter Gel are on the berry shapes of the wreath. The bottom strip of paper is a zip strip from the Yuletide Carol paper pack. This Christmas card is flat enough to send by mail!

 I also added a red 2.5" inch circle under the wreath. I cut a set of 3" and 2.75" circles for the sentiment inside. I stamped that sentiment using a CTMH "Be Jolly" stamp set, only available to hostesses.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you as you create and share your love with others!


I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
Christmas Card Challenge #44 - anything goes
Crafter's Café #84 - punches or die cuts
Crafting by Designs - October- anything goes
Die Cuttin Divas #185 - anything goes
Holly Jolly Christmas - anything goes
Inspiration Destination #1 - anything goes
Make My Monday - die cuts or punches
My Perftect Life - Week 38 - anything Christmas