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get cracking on christmas: october 2022

Hi there crafty friends! It's time for another month of Get Cracking on Christmas, a super fun challenge that my friend Jenn Shurkus hosts to get you working on your Christmas cards all throughout the year. It's the perfect time to play with all of those Christmas stamps, dies and other fun products I buy and never get around to using. I have not had time to play along the past couple of months so today I am back with a small batch of cards to help build up the stash. I even have a separate bin that I have started to store my cards in, so when I need to start addressing them, they are all ready. That time will be here before we know it!

I hope you are building a nice stash of holiday cards. If you are not following me on Instagram, I would love it if you followed me over there. I will have lots more ideas for Christmas cards coming soon and today I have a fun little reel showing you how this card came together. 


This card is a "remake" of one of my very favorite cards from last year...pretty much the same design (see original post here) but in pink...with glitter! It took me a few steps to figure out how to best get just the right amount of glitter on this card, and I found the best way to do that was to apply Distress Collage Medium to it with a small Tim Holtz brayer and then spray on some glitter with the Stampers Anonymous Glitter Duster. While I was doing all this I figured I would make a few so now I have 8 more Christmas cards to add to my stash :) 


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get cracking on christmas: july 2022 & a christmas in july GIVEWAWAY!

Hi there crafty friends! It's time for another month of Get Cracking on Christmas, a super fun challenge that my friend Jenn Shurkus hosts to get you working on your Christmas cards all throughout the year. It's the perfect time to play with all of those Christmas stamps, dies and other fun products you have added just a few (hundred) things to my holiday collection. I have not had time to play along the past couple of months so today I am back with a small batch of cards to help build up the stash. I even have a separate bin that I have started to store my cards in, so when I need to start addressing them, they are all ready. 

Let's just take a moment here to celebrate 6 months of Get Cracking! I hope you are building a nice stash of holiday cards. If you are not following me on Instagram, I would love it if you followed me over there. Today's post is where you will see my Christmas in July GIVEAWAY! I wanted this giveaway to be open world wide, so I am offering the winner a $50 gift card to Simon Says Stamp...be sure that you go to the instagram post today to enter :) 

The cards I created today were inspired by Jennifer McGuire's technique of putting papers she had created with Lindy's Magicals powders and then running them though embossing folders. I thought it would be a great time to try out all of my new colors of Magicals and turn them into cards. These powders are so fun, you just sprinkle a bit onto some Distress Watercolor Cardstock, mist with water and let them do their magic. The powders all seem to have a main color and lots of underlying colors that pop through when you spray them. I ran each colored panel through my die cut machine each with a different embossing folder and added a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp XL Christmas Greetings to each card, super easy and ready to embellish with other dies if I want to make any of them a bit fancier. 

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get cracking on christmas: february 2022

Welcome to another month of Get Cracking on Christmas! If you have not heard about this monthly Challenge, it is a challenge started a few years back by my crafty pal Jenn Shurkus. She started this challenge as a way to work on your Christmas cards all year long...and it certainly has helped me during the holiday season the past few years. 

I missed out last month, so this month I decided to make an entire stash of cards this month. I always love the look of a hand painted card, but let me tell you I certainly don't have time for that. I used the Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Winter Watercolor set to help me out. I stamped the tree using the new Evergreen Bough DIstress Archival Ink onto all of my card panels that I cut from White Distress Heavystock. This type of image gives the perfect base for the painting. I decided to make 12 at once, since I was taking all the paints out anyway. 


For the paints, I put a bit of Candied Apple, Twisted Citron, Picked Raspberry, Abandoned Coral and Picket Fence paints onto my Tim Holtz Glass Mat, then I painted the dots on, one color at a time. I painted all 12 one color and by the time I got back to the first one, it was pretty dry for the next color. The more I painted, the looser I got with the dots and I liked the look even better. You could dry them with a heat tool as well if you were just making a few (or one). 


Once all of the dots were dry, I added a Mirrored Star that I had inked with Mushroom Alcohol Ink to the top of each tree and also added a cut out sentiment from the Holiday Postmarks stamp set. That's it, easy peasy and I hope you love the painted look of these cards as much as I do! Are you ready to join in? Just make a Christmas card and be sure to add the hashtag #getcrackingonchristmas so we can check out your creation! 


Also, my friend Jenn creates a card each month, and in addition to that she has a You Tube Live to show how she created it! This month she will be LIVE on YouTube Friday, February 18th at 8p ET. 

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get cracking on christmas: nov 2021

Hi there crafty friends! It's time for another month of Get Cracking on Christmas, a super fun challenge that my friend Jenn Shurkus hosts to get you working on your Christmas cards all throughout the year. Christmas stamps, dies and all those other fun products are out and I have added just a few (hundred) things to my holiday collection. This month, I created a card using some products from the Simon Says Stamp Handmade Holiday release including the Rainbow Mini set of Glitz Glitter Gels...these are so fun to play with! 

To create this card, I cut a panel of Distress Watercolor Cardstock using the Wonky Rectangle Dies. Then I placed the Rustic Snowflake stencil over the panel a bit offset and applied the Glitz Glitter Gels in rainbow order and let it dry completely. Once the panel was dry, I added it to an A2 card base with foam tape. To complete this clean and simple card, I added the CZ Design Peace die cut that I cut from vellum and white cardstock. That's it...super simple and a beautiful, glittery result!  

If you are looking for more inspiration, Jenn does a You Tube live where she remakes her card each month so everyone can create along, so be sure to follow her www.youtube.com/jennshurkus This month her live will be on Nov 19th at 8pm EST! ⁠

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get cracking on christmas: october 2021

Welcome to another month of Get Cracking on Christmas. If you are new here, this is a project that I have been doing each month when time permits. The goal is to work on my Christmas cards all throughout the year in a challenge started by my friend Jenn Shurkus. By the end of the year, I have usually built up a bit of a stash to send out. 

***Just a note to remind you that Jenn does a You Tube live of her card each month...always fun to watch and you are sure to learn a tip or two to help you with your hoilday card making. This month's LIVE will be on Jenn's You Tube on Thursday Oct 21st at 8:00p ET. While you are there, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on other crafty fun from Jenn! ***

If you are like me, you buy so many holiday craft supplies with best intentions and just don't get around to using them. I love to go through my stash and see what I have not used yet and make sure I get to use something new. It always seems to create a bunch of ideas for holiday makes. I always like to create a few cards with no sentiment and a winter theme for my friends who do not celebrate Christmas to have on hand, and the Tim Holtz Cozy Winter bear seemed like the perfect die to use. 

I combined the bear from the Cozy Winter dies and the Tall Pines dies to create a little scene. I gave my bear a bright green felt scarf and added him to an ink blended panel created with Speckled Egg,Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers Distress Inks that had also been splattered with Picket Fence Distress Paint to create snow. I cut the snowflakes out from the Cozy Winter dies and added them to the blended sky. I gave each snowflake a dot of Star Dust Stickles for a fun finishing touch! 

You can find links to the supplies I’ve used below; click on the picture or shop icon to get taken directly to the product. I use affiliate links which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support.

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get cracking on christmas: july 2021 (and a GIVEAWAY!)

UPDATED: THE WINNER OF THE GIVEAWAY IS: Richard! I have sent you a message so I can get your prize to you! Remember, I will never ask you to register or sign up for anything to get your prize. Thanks to all who left such lovely comments. 

Hello there crafty friends and thank you for joining us for another month of Get Cracking on Christmas. This fun challenge was started by my friend Jenn Shurkus as a way to work on your Christmas cards all year long. I love to work on some special cards for certain people throughout the year. I always love a good rainbow Christmas card...you can see some others I have made over the years here, here, here, and even here!

I have something really special for your this month, we are celebrating Christmas in July with giveaways! I wanted to give something that everyone worldwide could enter to win. My giveaway is a $25 gift card to Simon Says Stamp, so you can pick out your own gift (which is exactly what I like to do!). All you need to do is leave a comment on this post and you will be entered to win. I will select a winner on Monday, July 19th and update this post :) 

For this card, I wanted to use the Reverse Confetti Wreath of Joy die. I have wanted it for a while, and finally just added it to my cart in my last Simon order. It is so cute and there are so many possibilities with it. To create my card, I ink blended a panel of Distress Watercolor Cardstock with my favorite rainbow of Distress Inks: Picked Raspberry, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed, Twisted Citron, Peacock Feathers, and Wilted Violet. I misted the panel with some water and blotted off the droplets then misted it generously with Tsukineko Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz which really makes the color pop! I cut the die, letters and leaves and arranged the word Joy. I gently folded each leaf shape in half to give it some dimension and adhered it with a Lawn Fawn glue tube. I added a couple of red Studio Katia Lipstick Red Crystals to the wreath to look like "berries'. 

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get cracking on christmas: april 2021

Hi there crafty friends! Welcome to the March 2021 Get Cracking on Christmas Challenge. This is a fun monthly challenge that was started by my friend Jenn Shurkus to challenge people to work on their Christmas cards all year long. I know that my biggest problem last year was addressing ALL the envies, and I also ran out of cards so I was making them at the last minute too. So I plan to do a dozen envelopes each month as well. We have been doing this challenge for a few years and it really helps me to get out those supplies that should have received a little more love during the holidays. 

This month I have a fun card using some Simon Says Stamp Exclusives that I NEVER EVEN OPENED last year. I stamped and colored the Santa's Sleigh Ride set in a non-traditional color palette with a simple sentiment. I stuck to pinks, brown and blues (and added a tiny bit of green for the trees). 

For the sky, I blended Distress Oxides in Speckled Egg and Chipped Sapphire. I went over them with the Falling Stars stencil and some Gina K Glitz Glitter Gel in white...these are the perfect tiny starts for this type of background. Once the background was dry, I added some glitter to the cut out houses using a Quickie Glue Pen and Distress Rock Candy Glitter. Then I foam taped them to the background. To finish my card, I cut the CZ Design Peace die out of pink cardstock and also adhered it with foam tape. Plain, simple and this one would also be easy to create as a batch of cards over a few days! 

 

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march 2021: get cracking on christmas

Hi there crafty friends! Welcome to the March 2021 Get Cracking on Christmas Challenge. This is a fun monthly challenge that was started by my friend Jenn Shurkus to challenge people to work on their Christmas cards all year long. I know that my biggest problem last year was addressing ALL the envies, and I also ran out of cards so I was making them at the last minute too. So I plan to do a dozen envelopes each month as well. 

This month, I wanted to make a little stash of cards, and use some things that needed to get more love. One of the things I buy and never seem to use are 6 x 6 paper pads. I love collecting them, and this month, I took one that I have been saving and cut it up to create card front panels. I combined each one with a CZ Design or SImon Says die from my stash and a few clear gemstones. Clean, simple and super easy to create...and I finally got good use out of some of those pretty papers. Please scroll down for a closer look at each card and a full list of supplies, in case you want some of these for your own! This paper pad is no longer available as far as I can tell, but there are a ton of other great ones out there and you may just have some in your stash like me :) 

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january 2021: let's get cracking on christmas

Hi there crafty friends! Welcome to the very first Get Cracking on Christmas of 2021. This is a fun monthly challenge that was started by my friend Jenn Shurkus to challenge people to work on their Christmas cards all year long. I know that my biggest problem last year was addressing ALL the envies, and I also ran out of cards so I was making them at the last minute too.

I am sure I will make some batches of Christmas cards during the year, but today I wanted to take some time and try out a fun technique from one of the Tim Holtz Holiday Demos that I did not get to try out last year. This technique was called Holiday Happy Hour, and I did something similar here for Halloween with spooky cocktails. For this card, I wanted to copy Tim's cocktails as closely as possible and pair them with a sentiment from the Bold Tidings 1 stamp set. 

To create this card, I used the Happy Hour Thinlits dies and cut them out of different colors of Metallic cardstock that I had adhered to Sizzix Adhesive Sheets. The adhesive is double sided and it makes layering these dies super easy (and no glue mess). I also added some seasonal dies from the Winter Wardrobe and Mini Christmas Things (sadly discontinued) dies sets. Then I added a stamped sentiment from the Bold Tidings 1 stamp set and embossed it in Gold Embossing Powder. I adhered the panel to a piece of kraft color Mixed Media Heavystock. Hope this card will bring some cheer to a friend next year! 

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get cracking on christmas: november 2020

Continuing along with my goal to 'Get Cracking on Christmas' all year long, by creating my Christmas cards with a few crafty friends throughout the year! If you want to see how it all started, go to my original post here.  

Today, I made a sweet and simple card, one I am sure to make several more of to send out using the Flora and Fauna Bottlebrush Snowglobe set. I love the tiny snowman so much!!!  I embossed the 'globe' in gold, added a tree, a tiny snowman and a little red garland to the tree to make this fun and tiny  (3 1/2 x 5) card.