Despite the quiet nature of this blog, it’s been anything but quiet around here the last few days. I’ll be back later with a Me on Monday post, but wanted to get this elegant Christmas thank you card entered in The Card Concept’s current challenge which closes within the hour.

I’m thinking this Floral Fantasy deer (Papertrey Ink) qualifies as elegant. I’m done with Christmas cards, but already have multiple thank you notes to write. I was delighted to find a “Christmas Thank You” sentiment in an old favorite from Papertrey Ink, ” Signature Christmas.”

The deer was silver embossed on Weathervane Cardstock, die cut, and adhered to a Smoky Shadow panel die cut with Simon Says “Stitched Rectangles.” The sentiment was embossed on vellum and then wrapped around the panel before adding it to a Weathervane top-folded card. Here’s closer look.

This might be the first Christmas Eve ever that I don’t have baking or wrapping left to do. Even the gifts going to Racine in early January are wrapped and ready to go! I’m planning to spend most of the day right here in my craft room, making more thank you notes and getting a start on the many January birthday cards that need to be made. 

I had a few spare moments yesterday, and had a pile of new die cuts laying on my desk, calling to me. I took advantage of some of the Black Friday sales and two of the things I picked up were two dies from Poppy Stamps. The poinsettias are the same image, just two different sizes. I thought I could use the larger one for an entry into the current Color Throwdown which calls for red, green, white, and kraft.

I also used a Simon Says die that’s been in my collection for over a year, and I could never come up with a way to use it. It worked perfectly this time, and I’m thinking it will see a lot more use now. From the start, I decided on a thank you card, since I hope I don’t need any more Christmas cards. I think I have everyone covered!

I hope the gold center and a few gold sequins don’t disqualify this from the Color Throwdown Challenge, but I felt like the card needed a little sparkle. Here’s a closer look:

The second card uses the smaller poinsettias, and I think it’s a good entry for CAS on Friday. Although the challenge says “Christmas Card,” I’m throwing it in the ring since clearly it’s a Christmas Thank You card. 

This card started with a premade 4-bar white card from Paper Source. The band of striped paper came from a 6X6 pad by American Crafts, but had no title for the pad. I think I picked it up a year or two ago at Hobby Lobby. 

All the diecuts were cut from Simon Says “Schoolhouse Red” paper and Papertrey Ink’s “New Leaf.” The sentiment was stamped with Papertrey Ink’s “Never Enough Thanks.” (That’s certainly true! 

Off to finish up the preparations for hosting our duplicate bridge group tonight.

A quick post to enter a card in the current Time Out Challenge: Joyful. I spent part of last weekend turning some of my tags for the 25 Tags of Christmas Challenge into cards. I ended up liking quite a few of them, including this one.

I die cut the Simon Says “Diamond Pattern” cover with Pure Poppy and added it to a white card base. I love the the design of this die and the texture it gives without overwhelming the tag itself. The tag itself was die cut with Papertrey’s “Tag Sale #4” and the greens and sentiment were stamped and die cut with Papertrey’s “Sending Joy,”

I needed some holiday cards for friends who don’t celebrate Christmas so this one is perfect. I’m also entering this in the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Christmas.

The current challenge at AAA Cards is Mostly White. I love white on white, and needed another holiday card so was anxious to create one for this challenge.

I started by die cutting Memory Box’s “Bianca Snowflake.” It’s so intricate that even with a metal shim, it took several trips through the die cutter to get a clean cut. It was totally worth it though. I coated it with Nuvo clear glitter, but couldn’t get a good photo of the shimmer, try as I might. 

After embossing the sentiment from Papertrey’s “Floral Fantasy: Christmas” in rose gold, I adhered some fun foam for a bit of dimension before putting it on the white card base. Here’s a closer look.

White is definitely the color here. We had the kind of stick-to-everything snow yesterday that coated every tree, bush and the lawn. It was really the perfect snow because it didn’t effect the roads or travel at all. 

I’m also entering this into a new-to-me challenge: CAS on Friday where the challenge is to make a Christmas card. I’m always glad to find another CAS challenge to play with!

As it turns out there was a bonus day for Tracy McNeely’s 25 Days of Christmas Tags challenge, so here are the last five. 

Day 22 was inspired by Channin Pelletier who created a series of tags with poinsettias. I recently purchased a 12×12 piece of Alexandra Renke patterned paper, and fussy cut one of the beautiful poinsettias. The sentiment was gold embossed and I added some gold Stickles to the center of the flower. The gold is not showing up well in any of these photos.

Tag: Paper Source; Stamp: Papertrey Ink “Signature Christmas”

Day 23 was inspired by Lisa Henke.

Dies: Papertrey Ink “Tag Sale #4,” Hero Arts ” Happy Holly Days,” Concord & 9th “Mistletoe Card Frame;” Stamps: Hero Arts “Happy Holly Days;” Zig watercolor pens; Nuvo glitter pen on bow

Day 24 was inspired Kim Heggins. As in the bow above, the holly leaves were covered with a Nuvo glitter pen which is lovely IRL, but didn’t photograph well.

Dies: Papertrey Ink “Tag Sale #4” and “Sending Joy;” Stamps: “Sending Joy;” Kaiser rhinestones

Day 25 was inspired by the shaker ornament created by Jessica Frost-Ballas.

Die: Simon Says “Stitched Circles,” My Favorite Things “Stylish Snowflakes;” Impression Obsession “Shake It: Shaker Card Pouches;” sequins

And last, the bonus tag, a riff on Day 22 inspired by Tracy McNeely’s wine bottle tag.

Papertrey Ink “Wine Bottle Tag,” Alexandra Renke patterned paper, Papertrey Ink ” Stylish Sentiments: Holiday” embossed in gold, gold Stickles

When I began this challenge I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep up, but I really enjoyed it, and enjoyed using so many of my holiday stamps, some of which were purchased many years ago. I thought about half of them would be used for the family gift exchange, but on Thanksgiving we wisely decided to drop the gift exchange since no one needs anything. To replace the fun of the gift exchange (which inevitably caused a great deal of laughter) we’re going to go back to playing games after dinner. Now many of these tags will be turned into Christmas cards, as I have more than I need for gifts!

This month’s inspiration photo for the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop left lots of room for interpretation.

When I started thinking about a card for the hop, I laid out several stamp sets as possibilities. I ended up stamping and die cutting images from “Sending Joy” and “Forest Floor Winter” without any clear design in mind. Once I had a pile of images I started playing around with some arrangements. Looking at the photo, I also pulled out some of the Pure Poppy “Bitty Big” striped paper. At some point I looked at the packages, and remembered I’d just purchased a die for a stitched bow from My Favorite Things. I die cut it from Pure Poppy felt, and liked it so much I went with the idea of creating a kind package on the card. This process is really different for me, but I ended up with a card I like, and one very different from anything I’d thought of in the beginning. It’s also a departure from my usual CAS designs.

I decided to center the “package” in the open frame from the “Bold Borders: Yuletide” die which was cut from white and layered on a white card base. The “Bitty Big” papers fit in the middle space, and then it was just a case of arranging the rest of the elements. I had planned to use the JOY from “Sending Joy,” but it was too large. I ended up die cutting this smaller joy from Pinefeather to balance the green from the branches. The die is from an older W plus 9 set, “Hand Lettered Holiday.” I added the blue berries to incorporate that color from the inspiration photo.

Using some Stabilo pens I added some dimension to the pine boughs and the berries. It’s hard to see here, but the red berries have a coating of Nuvo shimmer on them. I’m curious to see how others have used this inspiration piece. You can check it out right here, as well.

I’ve always loved the images of little red cars (or trucks) with a Christmas tree on top. Last year, I acquired two different versions of the little car with a tree. When I saw the AAA Cards Challenge “On the Move,” I knew I wanted to play along. Then The Card Concept showed up with a great photo challenge with a pillow with, you guessed it, a little red car with a Christmas tree on top. Then I saw the CAS(e) This Sketch this week, and I thought I could turn the sketch on its side, and come up with a CAS card for all three challenges.

So here it is—a card for three challenges, so unusual for me.

Simon Says “Fog” cardbase, PTI True Black and Weathervane, and a strip of bright yellow from the scrap bin. The stamps are from a tiny Hero Arts set by Kelly Purkey, and the card was bumped out with dimensional tape on a Simon Says “Stitched Circle” die cut. The little car was colored with Copic markers.

Pretty quick and easy, but fun!