Elves? Martinis? I'll take some of both!

I'm so relieved to have my cards done, it was a labor of love for sure, and I'm very glad I made them, but its been fun to get to just play a little too!

This is, a giant card.  Its 5 1/4 x 6 1/2, but I really really wanted to use "Merry Christmas?" from MFT because this so epitomizes how I'm feeling right now, and I wanted to use the fabulous MFT Sketch Challenge #60.  In order to get the proportions right, I had to go big.....

I figure, back in the day, when I bought cards at Hallmark, cards were bigger than this anyways.

The background is cuttlebugged with the folder with all the ornaments on it, I had to run it through two times to get this full panel done, but its okay, the seam is behind the vertical striped panel!  

After I cuttlebugged, it, I crumpled it all up then flattened it out again to give it an worn look.  Then sewed everything down.

This paper is Fa La La from Making Memories along with a package of coordinating ribbon I tripped across this afternoon during a cleanup (whoops.) 

Today is a new release day for MFT's "BcDzns" line and lots of girls on the team will have previews for you, you can begin the blog hop over on Kim's blog. Don't forget to check out this month's Hot to Trot Designer Jana Hull along the way!

Its also Wednesday which means you'll find a new Challenge, Tutorial and of course, the Wednesday Hookup!  Get going on over on the Splitcoast Member Company Forum for My Favorite Things to check it all out! 

Tag It!

Although I was thrilled to make so much progress on my Christmas cards, I have to admit to being itchy to work on something NEW!

Sunday morning I got a headstart on wrapping up some Christmas gifts. While doing that, I got totally sidetracked because I decided I needed to make some fun tags to go with them. I was inspired by Heather Nichols cute tags on this post here.

I've been hoarding some really great designer paper and its about time I dig into the stash. These were a lot of fun to make. I'll have two more to show tomorrow - I've got to finish them up tonight.

Assorted ribbons, designer papers from Basic Grey Figgy Pudding, and my jumbo eyelets were set with the help of my crop o dile. The teeny tag part is from Perfect Presentation and I used the tag corner punch and a small handheld punch to turn it into a tag for the tag!

A hurried post today - lots to do - but if anyone needs the details, just let me know!

Going Postal!

I have been working feverishly on my Christmas cards all weekend. I have around 80 of them done -some are local deliveries to the neighborhood, and the balance will be going to the post office today!

I have the pieces ready for the rest of the cards, but I'm awaiting the arrival of more Wild Wasabi double stitched ribbon to finish them up.

Here's a little sneak peak

I'm worried that with the ribbon and bradded flowers, the cards will need the additional 17 cents postage. Say a prayer for me when I bring a sample in to see the postman that they just register as a normal sized piece of mail!!

I'll post the card itself a week from today!

Getting Anxious?

Last night, after stamp club, I decided to take 45 minutes to work on Christmas cards. I got such a laugh yesterday, one of you is apparently very anxious to see the final product.....because this was the comment I received yesterday:

Anonymous said...
WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE FINISHED??

However, I can't show the full card here till my family and friends get them, or it sorta ruins the surprise! Hope you all understand. wink!

I've been posting the progress to show you all that it isn't really all that hard to make the cards on your own, and if you just carve out a little time each day, you'll be amazed with the progress you can make.

Last night, I assembled the shimmery white flourishes onto their bashful blue mats. Then I worked on attaching brads through the pointsettas. I still have MANY more pointsettas to cut, clearly the most time consuming portion of this product, but you know me, I think the little touches make all the difference.

I also figured out where, and how, I'll insert the photograph of my boys. I'll be using the SU slot punch on the bottom and right hand side of the inside of the card to hold the photo in place. That way, anyone that wants to remove the photo from the card can do so easily, with no sticky adhesive mess to deal with.

Tonight, I'll start stamping the greeting on each of the base cards, stamping my "stamped by Joanne" onto the back, and I'll double slot punch everything to make room for the photo. That's going to be a lot of stamping for 130 cards, but at least I can watch a movie while I do that!! Time consuming, but at least pretty mindless......

Have a great weekend, and see you Monday!