Christmas Presence

Did you take advantage of Thanksgiving or Black Friday sales? I've finished shopping for a few of my kids and grandkids.  With the emphasis on gift-buying, it's easy to focus more on the presents than in the "PRESENCE" of the one who gave His name and life to Christmas. That's why I chose to white emboss the Verve sentiment: The magic of Christmas is not in the presents but in HIS presence.

This Christmas card is a quick and easy one I made using scraps of Basic Grey paper and a lovely PML card from the retired CTMH Pear and Partridge collection.  I popped up the main panel, sentiment and a couple of squares wrapped in twine to represent gifts to give it a little more dimension.

Thank you for visiting! May you enjoy the PRESENCE of Christ as you make preparations to celebrate His Christmas birth!

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:

Challenge Up Your Life #80 - Trees
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge #361 - anything Christmas
Crazy 4 Challenges  #413 - Christmas card
Daring Cardmakers - Trim the Tree
Winter Wonderland - traditional Christmas colors - red and green

Quick and Easy Christmas Cards

I recently sold more than 50 of my handmade Christmas cards and now need to replace more than that for myself. I found a really quick procedure to make them using some of my older My Mind's Eye card bases and the newer CTMH "Pear & Partridge" Picture My Life cards. The first set of PML cards I bought came with page protectors that have a variety of 4" x 6" and 3" x 4" arrays to be filled with the cards and photos. Now they've come out with sets you can buy without the page protectors, so I'm on my second set.

These are so fast, I'm totally sold on them! There are three of each 3" x 4" card in each set, meaning I can easily make two more cards after designing one.  I only added a contrasting mat, a small amount of coordinating Christmas paper and a simple embellishment or two. Here are a few samples:

I cut along the top edge of the sleigh so I could insert a "gift" with this message from a Verve stamp: "Christ the Savior is Born."

(The sentiment on the last card was stamped using a long-retired stamp from a long-retired company.)

My favorite Christmas style is traditional, with traditional colors like red and green, so the PML cards help with this style.
Thank you for visiting! Let us be thankful for this blessed holiday celebrating the birth of Christ the Savior.
I'm sharing this project with the following challenges:
As You Like It- favorite Christmas style (traditional/modern) & why
Aud Sentiments Challenge #120 - use a sentiment for any Dec. holiday
Christmas Stampin' All Year #38 - Anything goes (plus comments)
Crafting by Designs - Get Ready for Christmas
Scrapper's Delights Challenge #36 - anything goes/traditional Christmas
Winter Wonderland - Let's get sentimental

Mojo Monday and September Stamp of the Month Card 2

Here is my second card using the Mojo Monday sketch this week, a black and white Picture My Life (PML) card, and the CTMH September Stamp of the Month. You can see the first one and what I used HERE.

 

I'm using the great colors inspired by the Craft Garden challenge this month. The background paper is from the CTMH Yuletide Carol collection. It's topped with the Glacier blue piece from the Fundamentals collection and the black and white PML card from the For Always collection. I will probably use some of the set of 122 cards for a wedding album, but since there are 2 each of the 4" x 6" cards and 3 each of the 3" x 4" cards I have plenty to play with when I make cards. I'm astounded by the variety of the two-sided cards. This one is one of the simplest. I stamped the hearts from the stamp of the month using Bamboo, Glacier, and Flaxen inks. The small puffy lagoon colored heart is from the Chalk It Up Assortment.

Here's the fun set of colors from The Craft Garden:

and the sketch I used from Mojo Monday

Here's the Stamp of the Month  I used. You can find it on my shopping site for $5 with a $50 purchase or get it at the regular price. If you're looking for ideas, I will be posting two more cards using this set.

Mojo Monday 361 and Stamp of the Month Card 1

I'm enjoying using the Close To My Heart September Stamp of the Month, especially with the new trend of using Picture My Life Cards with the new Paper Fundamentals collection.  

I trimmed the black and lace border a little so it would fit the sketch and the size of the hear. I stamped the word "Love" on the PML card, along with a few Glacier colored flowers from this National Stamping Month's #30 Years of Happy stamp set. (If you purchase $30 in stamps from my CTMH site, you get this stamp set of 30 images free. I stamped the heart image from the stamp of the month on a heart I cut out with the CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge. I also cut one .25" larger using Ruby cardstock. The Black Shimmer trim and Black/Gray Epoxy Bubbles add some bling.

 

Here's a close-up of the bling:

Here's the Mojo Monday sketch I used this week:

I'm sharing this card with the following challenges:
4 Crafty Girlz #26 - anything goes
Crafting by designs September - anything goes
Mojo Monday #361 - sketch
Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge #45 - anything goes

Totally Gorjuss #252 - Bling