February Christmas cards and tags...

Well, I've managed to keep my commitment for two whole months now. In case you're not sure what I'm talking about--I made a resolution for 2014 to make 4-5 Christmas cards and tags each month so that its not such a BIG job come November and December.

Here are my cards for this month:

For this month's batch of cards, I used a Christmas house stamp and coordinating die. I'm not sure who the manufacturer is. It was a gently used stamp and coordinating die set that I purchased at Archiver's during their going-out-of-business sale. The packaging was not all intact, but I got it at a very good price, and you can see that it makes a cute Christmas card.

On each of the cards, I added an embossed strip with a contrasting scalloped edge across the center. On the two cards above, I also added some red Card Candi in the corners. I thought the Card Candi helped brighten up the darker paper and fill in some empty areas on the portrait-style card. I ended up liking the landscape look best, so I made three more like that.

Here are the other three cards for a total of five. I didn't add any Card Candi to these, thinking that the papers were busy enough without it. To get the red and white candies on each of the houses, I stamped the bottom half of the house with red ink on white cardstock and fussy cut them out so that I could paper-piece them onto the house.

The houses were stamped on kraft cardstock and then portions were colored with my ProMarkers.  As a last step, I added some snow with a Marvy Snow Marker. When I applied the liquid applique with the Snow Marker, I sprinkled on a little white glitter to add just a little bit of sparkle. I know you can't see it in the photos, but it does add a nice touch in real life.

I kept the inside of the card nice and simple. I used some red Stazon ink for the greeting. I just haven't found another red ink that stamps as clean and crisp as Stazon.









One of the most fun things to make with this stamp and die set is Christmas gift tags.

I love how these turned out. I cut the same shape out of white cardstock and adhered it to the back of the little house. Then I used my crop-a-dile to punch a hole in the peak of the roof, add a ribbon and voila!--a cute little Christmas tag.

I used all the same products and techniques on the tags that I used on the cards. These tags turned out so darn cute, I think I'll need to make some more of them. They're fun to make and go together fairly quickly.














So now I'm already thinking about what kind of Christmas cards I'll make in March. It's a good feeling to know that I already have 10 Christmas cards done, and there are still 10 months to go until the holidays!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and remember to laugh--a little or a lot--every day.
Cheryl