The Magic of Christmas is in His Presence

It's time for quick, last minute Christmas cards. I've used the stamp from this card several times. It's certainly one of my favorite Christmas sentiments (from Verve) because the message is about having the presence of Christ in our lives. We celebrate Christmas, named after Him, because He came to earth to be born as a baby, ministered to those hurting in life, and died to take the punishment for the sins of all mankind so that those who believe can live forever with Him. 

What a gift!  I used the colors from today's Color My Heart Color Dare to use Reds, Greens, Neutral (Kraft), and Gold.

The papers are from CTMH Beary Christmas. I attached an old chipboard gift from Pear & Partridge and decided to use up some Cranberry brads.

May your Christmas be blessed with His Presence, His peace, love, and joy!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Color My Heart Challenge #272 - Traditional Color Challenge
Crimbo Crackers#147 - gift boxes (the chipboard one on my card)
Jingle Belles - Holiday wrap-up
Merry Christmas Challenge #47 - anything Christmas
The Sisterhood of Crafters - All About Christmas
Sunny Day Crafting #65 - X is for Xmas
Winter Wonderland Challenge - anything Christmas goes

Christmas Cards - Surrounded with Music

I've been considering how to share the many ideas that flooded my mind when I saw the challenge at the Path of Positivity: Surround Yourself with Music. I especially identify with the idea of "surrounding myself" when it comes to music. I've worked on several Christmas cards to express Christmas joy using a music theme because singing carols was always a big part of my life.

As a child we would have a children's choir to sing in church Christmas programs. In Girl Scouts, we sang carols and served cookies to elderly folks in nursing homes. As a teen I sang in school choirs and learned I could sing alto to the familiar carols and popular Christmas songs. My mom would have my friend who lived next door, a soprano, come over so the two of us could serenade her acappella with Christmas songs. Our amazing music teacher taught us so many songs with a Christian message back then. My friend became a music teacher and greatly influenced my music choices. While living there I fell in love with classical music and keep that on in my car to relax me and in my craft room  to inspire my artwork.

In college, a professor convinced me I was a soprano and taught me how to stretch my vocal chords, which helped me in the years I taught in Christian schools. I was the teacher who led the children's singing in Christian programs in two of the schools.
When I was a teacher in public school, we would put classical cd's in our computers to play soft classical Mozart to help the kids calm themselves and focus. It really worked! It does the same for me, now, too!

It's probably no surprise, then, that I keep a separate box of just music related papers and embellishments to use on crafts.  Here are two cards I made celebrating music and Christmas! This first one uses CTMH Beary Christmas paper and an old carol from the back of a Graphic 45 paper I had cut up. Since it was called "The Holly and the Ivy," I embossed the top with a holly embossing folder.

The second one uses papers from long-retired Mistletoe papers and a more recently retired PML card of carolers, all from CTMH.

I hope you, too, find that music uplifts your spirit when you need it and find wonderful ways to enjoy Christmas carols this season as we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm sharing this post with the following challenges:
Aud Sentiments #194 - Christmas + A Sentiment (2nd card)
Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Anything goes with a CTMH product
International Art & Soul Challenge #22 - Buttons and Bows (first card)
Moving Along with the Times #59 -  Christmas Animals (2nd card)
Path of Positivity Challenge #53 - Surround yourself with music (optional)

Holiday Expressions New Product Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop featuring new products in the new Close To My Heart Holiday Expressions catalog. You're on the right path if you just came from Lucy Marino's blog.  To see the entire list of participants, visit Melinda Everitt's blog post.

There are so many fun stamps, papers, dies, embellishments, etc. from this book it was hard to narrow down what to share. Since I need about 200 Christmas cards this year, I picked one Christmas stamp set, Prince of Peace, to show you three examples. I thought the Joy to the World stamp in this set would work perfectly for this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #230.

I used three different papers from the Beary Christmas paper pack to show how versatile this stamp can be.  

I did make one mistake with this project by including gold sequins so that the cards would be flatter for mailing. I had overlooked that they retired last month.  These are no longer available, but the bronze sequins have a sheet of gold sequins. You can check out the products I used below or you can move on to Emily Sararas's blog so that you can start making your own projects right away! Thanks for visiting!

I'm also sharing this project with a couple of the Christmas challenges:

A Snowflake's Promise Challenge #44 - anything goes

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - anything goes

The Holly and the Ivy Christmas Challenge #15 - anything Christmas goes

Papers - Beary Christmas Paper Pack, White Daisy Cardstock, Red Glitter Paper, Gold Glitter Paper, Cranberry Cardstock 

Stamp - Prince of Peace 

Inks - Versamark, Black Memento, New England Ivy, Glacier

Tools - Rose Embossing Folder, Thin 3-D Foam Dots,  Ranger Princess Gold Embossing Powder

Embellishments - Basics Ribbon Pack (gold), Whimsy Ribbon Pack (glacier and gold stripe), and white and gold ribbon,     Bronze Sequins can be used instead of gold

National Stamping Month Blog Hop

Welcome to our blog hop celebrating National Stamping Month. You may have just come
from Michele Rowley's blog. To see the entire list of participants, visit Melinda Everitt's post.

You can purchase the From the Heart card kit which includes card bases, envelopes, and an E-sized stamp set for a 20% discount this month only. You can also buy just the stamp set or just the card bases. I wanted to show you how the beautiful gold framed card bases can be used for any kind of card, so I made a Christmas card using one of the pocket scrapbooking panels from the new CTMH Beary Christmas paper pack and the Christmas stamp, First Noel. After I made it I knew I wanted to buy extra card bases for more unique interactive cards!

I had already put one card together to see what to fold and what to adhere. I didn't want to risk getting ink on the gold border after it was adhered so I chose to stamp the inside first. To be sure I stamped within the space available, here are the steps I followed:

1. Before folding or adhering anything, fold the gold frame over the inside, lifting the middle panel.

2. Lightly mark the side and top edges of the stampable area with a pencil.

3. Be sure the sentiment stamp you choose fits inside that area.

 4. Line up your stamps inside with the gold frame down, then stamp. Don't forget to erase the light pencil marks.

5. Finish folding and adhering the card sides and top according to the step-by-step assembly directions that are included in the entire kit as well as in the packet of extra card bases and envelopes.

To make the front:
I chose the 4" x 3" pocket card that is mostly white with a few evergreen trees and some glacier sky with snowflakes on top. I cut a house silhouette from Toffee cardstock using Cricut You Are Here, cutting off the chimney. To fit the space I allowed, I sized it 1.5" wide x 1.75" high. The "O" manger scene from the word NOEL was stamped with black on Glacier cardstock. I restamped the star with Versamark and gold embossed it with the medium sized star in the stamp set. I punched it out with a one inch circle punch. The pocket card is slightly smaller than the front panel card that comes with this card pack, so I gold embossed the star border that comes with the stamp set on each side. I tied the gold ribbon from the Basics ribbon pack. I replaced the small bottom strip that supports the front of the card with a strip of Glacier cardstock 5/8" x 3.75" and adhered the front according to directions. 

When you pull up the inside white panel the card front pops up . . .

 revealing the inside sentiment.

The card front stays standing. How cool is that!?!

Thank you for visiting! Now you're ready to move on to Miss Carrie's Creations to see her lovely artwork.

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Addicted to Stamps #152 - Christmas
A Snowflake's Promise Challenge #44 - anything goes
Heartful Stamping Challenge Sept.10-17 - anything goes with stamping
The Holly and Ivy Challenge #14 - anything Christmas goes